Retaliation
by 1bzwriter
Summary: Jet abducts Katara as part of gamble to ensure the safety of the Freedom Fighters he left behind. Can Aang and Sokka avoid a confrontation while rescuing Katara from a ruthlessly determinded Jet? :Season One: .PROLOGUE UPDATED.
1. Prologue : Butterfly Effect

**Prologue**

Lazar of the Fire Nation stared commandingly at the guards outside the cell. They quickly made way for him and he strode into the darkened prison cell, leaving the men outside the door waiting for him to call them in.

The prisoner inside had been in his custody for two weeks, having been delivered from a settlement in a Earth Kingdom town. This captive had been causing problems for him for months, and despite being the leader of his group of rebels, they had yet to finally weed out the infestation of the remaining members. Lazar was a tall, dark haired man with hard eyes and an ever present sardonic cast to his features, even when he was pleased like he was at the moment.

For the boy showed signs of nearing his limit, and today after the questioning Lazar had ordered, he was sure he would be more willing to cooperate. The brat's resilience infuriated him—if things continued unchanged, he was going to have to send him to the Boling Rock and prove he and regent were incapable of dealing with him.

"Enough, you can take a break now." He ordered the men standing over a slumped form on the ground. They backed away from the young man, eyes lowered respectfully. The chained teenager looked up, his black eyes expressionless, his shaggy black hair tousled and shaggy, his thin body slightly trembling.

Lazar appraised the boy as he slowly stood up, tall enough to be eye level with himself. Despite being withheld food and water and having just received a beating, he held himself straight and proud with his trembling body, chin lifted high as he stared at the man in front of him.

"Have you rethought your decision?" Lazar asked him, pressuring him with his gaze.

The teenager kept his face passive, dark eyes shuttered with a burning intensity behind them. "Yes, and my answer remains unchanged."

Breath hissing out sharply, Lazar immediately lashed out and brutally kicked him in the side of his ribs, fire heating his boot hot enough to give him a first degree burn. Staggering, the teenager struggled to steady his breathing as he hunched over, gasping for air.

Turning away in disgust, Lazar began to order the men to continue when the teenager interrupted him.

"I could offer you information that would be more beneficial to you than the whereabouts of the Freedom Fighters."

Unwilling to play his mind games, Lazar glanced over his shoulder with a sneer and called his bluff. "No such information exists. You're out of luck."

He smiled callously, slightly grimacing through the pain he was unable to conceal. "Information that could enable you track down the Avatar, and bring him back alive to this base."

Truthfully, he was startled. That wasn't something he would have expected to hear from him, but then he _had_ been a rather exceptionally formidable nuisance. The fact that he might be aware of the Avatar's movements shouldn't be so surprising considering both of them were fugitives.

Recovering his composure, he met the boys gaze, trying to pry any signs of lying from his demeanor. "Interesting. However, I've had several other petty criminals try to strike a similar bargain when they were cornered. There is no way for you to prove your _information,_ true. If you had such a bargaining chip, why not mention it earlier?"

He smiled mirthlessly, the corners of his mouth turning up sharply, the glint of his eye tooth flashing white against his skin. "I tend to try and exhaust all options before resorting to betraying a comrade. On his journey, my men and I rescued the Avatar from a small party of troops. If you check your records from that particular outpost, you should find mention of it."

The sarcastic smile playing around his lips instantly disappeared into a thoughtful frown. Silent, Lazar continued to stare penetratingly until the air became claustrophobic with tension. He stared back unwaveringly, black eyes confident and bold.

"And if those records are there like you say…what of it? You've been here for over two weeks. The Avatar is out of your reach, the chances of tracking and finding him are too slim to chance what with the entire Fire Nation already on watch for him." Lazar waited for whatever he would say in response; even if it was a lie, he couldn't help but wonder just how convincing he would make it.

"Because when I was in his confidence," He began without hesitating, "He mentioned the goal he and his followers are traveling to despite the many detours they take. I was also asked for my opinion on which towns would be ideal to stop at for traveling supplies." He paused momentarily, and when there was no immediate interrupted he smirked slightly. "And as I'm sure you must be aware, I'm one of the best trackers in this part of the country."

Lazar let out a short harsh bark of laughter that caused the quietly observing guards to flinch wildly. "So we finally get down to it—you mean to con me into letting you out of prison and then you escape, leaving me to demoted and made into a laughingstock." He waved a hand scornfully at the silent teen. "I've heard enough."

Turning his head around sharply, he opened the door and had one foot stepping out when he spoke.

"The Avatar is in love with one of his companions, the water tribe girl he's reported to travel with. If you choose competent men you're confident I couldn't escape from, I could easily lead the tracking and direct the capture of the girl, who would far easier to capture and subdue and then lure the Avatar to this tower."

Despite himself, he hesitated, glaring across the hallway at the wide spread stain on the wall. "And you think that would be enough to convince him to willingly come into what he would know is a trap?" The longer this went on, the more Lazar doubted it would work. So why was he considering it?

"The Avatar is still only a child, a child in love at that. The older boy is the girl's brother and he would insist that they rescued her. Especially if they knew it was me." For the first time, his eyes glanced away, glowering momentarily at the stained floor before returning to Lazar's face and regaining their persuasive composure.

Lazar couldn't help but raise his eye brow at his last muttered statement, but decided to ignore it. "People in this situation don't make deals like this with no benefit for themselves. What do you want?"

His eyes glittered darkly, the look in them unnerving. "You control the troops situated in the Earth Kingdom town we are protecting. Withdraw them permanently and ensure no troops under the command of another officer replace them and I'll cooperate with anything you ask of me after that."

The silence in the room was oppressive, neither of the two looking away from each other. Finally, Lazar closed his eyes smirked in disbelief at himself. "If the records are there, it will be as you've said. You will have a month to find the Avatar and bring him back here. You and twenty men of my choosing start the day after tomorrow at dawn." Suddenly the two torturers who were standing discreetly in the shadows found themselves pinned under the intense stare of their captain.

"This will be a great honor to the people of this division if this plans succeeds. See to it that it does not fail because of you." Lazar intoned coldly, including the guards standing outside who had overheard their conversation. Swallowing hard, they immediately nodded and assured him of their loyalty.

"Come and research those records for me! We have work to begin!" Lazar barked and finished walking out of the room, ignoring the gaze following him and others out of the room.

The door creaked shut, bringing the room into total darkness as the voices echoed and disappeared down the hallway. The teenager left in the dark remained sitting, head bowed to the floor and quietly listening until the sound of human life was completely absent.

His lips curved up sharply and a disturbing laugh echoed throughout the chamber.

* * *

**Final draft:** August 2nd 2008

**First draft:** October 8, 2005


	2. Ice

There are multiple changes in the text itself, and new paragraphs and pages are bound to show up now and again. (Like changing some cliché like parts that have now become common and unoriginal, such as Katara dumping water on Sokka to get him to wake up) There is also a little more insight on Jet's stay in prison and the setting out of his mission; so expect some flashbacks on Jet's part. I'd encourage you for a re-read, or a first time one too if you're new to this story.

Chapter One

The Ice Mountains

Wind rushed through the leaves and branches of tall forest pine trees as the sun peeked out from behind grey clouds. A red hawk alighted upon a high tree branch. Swaying in the breeze, he prepared to burst into song. Suddenly an enormous shadow fell over the bird, and before he had any time to react, the red hawk was knocked off the tree branch with a piercing squawk by the tail of a flying….buffalo?

"Sokka, there is absolutely no way you know where you're going!" Katara said, frowning while waiting expectantly for Sokka's predicable response. He scowled at her from over his shoulder, his expression not remotely intimidating.

"I don't need directions!" He said haughtily, watching her out of the corner of his eye while fidgeting with Appa's reins.

"Then why are we going around in circles?" Katara muttered, rolling her eyes. Sokka pretended not to hear her, lifting his chin while gazing defiantly at her.

"Look Katara, if we want to go to the North Pole, we have to go _north._" Sokka explained, emphasizing each word with a melodramatic flourish of his hand.

"How do you know we're going north then?" Katara asked, crossing her arms and raising her eye brows. _Besides, that's got to be the most over-used phrase I've heard so far besides 'I'm hungry' from you. _Katara added mentally to herself. He opened his mouth to reply, when he stopped, eyes narrowing as his expression soured.

"…Just let me steer and no backseat driving!" He finally snapped, turning back around with a huff. Katara turned her head as she heard someone trying futilely to not snicker. A young boy of twelve dressed in bright reds and yellows was sitting across from her, his grey eyes twinkling as he bit his lip. His glee was contagious and Katara couldn't resist smiling wryly at him.

"What's so funny Aang?" Sokka suddenly demanded, a warning underlining his words as he noticed the air bender's expression. Aang quickly schooled his face into his most innocent expression, which normally would have made Katara suspicious and apprehensive.

"Nothing," Aang said cheerfully, albeit a bit too cheerfully to be believable. Sokka didn't look impressed, and whatever he was about to say was cut off by Aang and Katara as their eyes abruptly widened in alarm.

"_Cliff!" _

"SOKKA LOOK OUT!"

Sokka whirled his head around in time to see a towering rock formation a couple feet away before Appa flew up into the sky at a sharp angle, not a dumb enough creature to crash into a rock because his driver wasn't paying attention.

Yelping in surprise, Sokka's grip on the reins slipped and he crashed back into the saddle on top of Aang while Appa continued to fly up at a nearly vertical angle. After another few heart racing seconds Appa returned to his regular flight pattern, completely unaffected by his upset passengers.

"Appa!" Sokka wailed, after untangling himself from Aang. He rubbed his arm, convinced that a bruise would show up after hitting it on Aang's hard head.

"Don't yell at him!" Aang scolded, his grey eyes flashing as he rubbed his forehead, wincing slightly.

"Yeah, its _your_ fault he had to do that anyway Sokka," Katara said sourly after spitting out the mouthful of Momo's fur that had got stuck when the lemur had clung to her head. Sokka half-heartedly glared in Katara's direction as she fastened one of her hair loopies back into her bun.

"Whatever." Sokka grumbled, recognizing defeat as he climbed back onto Appa's head and grabbed the reins. Aang was busy getting Momo away from their limited supply of mangos when Katara caught a glimpse of what looked like a tall fortress in between two large mountain-like hills.

A Fire Nation banner was flapping in the wind.

Wordlessly she glanced at Aang and the boys face quickly turned serious as he crawled over to her side.

"What is it?" Aang asked quietly, watching her face cautiously.

"Look down there," Katara answered cryptically, pointing to the fortress that went in and out of view as the trees and hills blocked it from sight. Once the air bender saw what she was pointing at wariness instantly sprang into his eyes, and something else. To Katara, it reminded her of when she watched Aang's eyes as he told her his past.

"Sokka, we're close to a Fire Nation post," Aang said immediately, pointing to show the teenager where the tower was.

"Right…let's get out of here before we end up in another mess like we usually do," Sokka muttered wryly, tugging the reins to tell Appa that he wanted to go higher into the clouds.

"You know, we still don't know if we're going the right way," Katara said after a while, absently fiddling with the end of her braid. Sokka sighed heavily.

"_This_ is why it's important to have a compass!" Sokka's eyes glared meaningfully at Aang while the air bender avoided his gaze by hanging upside down on the edge of Appa's saddle.

"We could just go into that village and ask around. Someone should know." Aang suggested, ignoring Sokka. He didn't want to have _that_ argument again. Katara crawled beside Aang and looked over the saddle, narrowing her eyes until she could make it out.

"It seems safe enough," Katara remarked, "Looks just like a normal village."

Shrugging his shoulders, hoping that perhaps they could grab a bite to eat there, (he was a teenage _boy_ why was everyone so incredulous of his eating habits?!) Sokka had Appa fly lower to the ground to get ready to land. The village itself was inside a traditional square shaped wall of earth, a large wooden gate standing open to let the steady stream of people in and out. The town was nestled at the foot of some intimidating mountains; their jagged tops gleamed white and snow covered most of the mountain sides. An icy cold wind blew towards them as they got closer.

Appa landed in a small meadow a safe distance from the town, having become used to staying out of sight. Once his passengers were off, he quickly walked off to go eat some nearby vegetation that looked appetizing.

"How much money do we have?" Sokka asked as they all three started walking towards town, Momo hanging on Katara's shoulder while playing with her pendant. Katara frowned at the question, not looking happy at all as she pulled Momo's paws away from her neck.

"Not much. We better save the money until we get desperate." Sokka's face abruptly changed into one of his blacker expressions, his navy blue eyes darkening at the thought of even less food to eat.

"Well, what if we did an odd job for someone in town in exchange for some food?" Aang suggested, not really wanting to eat nuts and berries for supper like they always did when Katara got paranoid about the food supplies.

"Great, not only are we being chased by the Fire Nation and Zuko—" Sokka glanced at the earth kingdom hat Aang wore over his tattoo—"and we're lost, but now we have to work for food."

"Be quiet Sokka." Katara said absently as they joined the people entering the town gate. "Aang just might be on to something." Aang beamed while Sokka glowered.

"Tell you what," Sokka drawled, "_You_ can gut fish, and when you're done I can eat it." He glanced sidelong at the fish cart they passed in the maze of the surprisingly large market place this town had. Katara made a face and muttered a sarcastic "ha ha, very funny," under her breath as they continued walking farther into the town. People brushed by them, thin women with pale, worried faces clutching baskets of food, children chasing children or occasionally a stray chicken, and sometimes men with bags of feed in their arms, their faces grim or impassive.

"Who do you think would be most likely to hire a couple of kids?" Katara asked while glancing around at all the shops and merchandise carts they were passing. Hey, did she recognize that cabbage merchant…?

Suddenly Katara realized that nobody had responded to her question. Having become much more wary and suspicious after their many misadventures, Katara immediately turned around, looking frantically around her for a sight of the boys.

She couldn't see any sign of them.

"Aang! Sokka!" She called, some people glancing at her in surprise at the urgent undertone in her voice. _Oh please don't be in trouble, I am so not in the mood to figure out how to save you if are…_

Katara's face suddenly lost its anxious expression and was replaced with an annoyed glare as Katara spotted Aang and Sokka a short distance away, looking at the window of a bakery that had cakes and cookies set on display.

Stomping over to them, Katara ignored the delicious scents wafting from the shop and Sokka and Aang's dreamy, blank expressions as she grabbed the backs of their shirts and yanked them away from the window and started dragging them backwards down the street.

"Katara!" Sokka whined, "Let go!" He jerked free of her grip with more ease then Katara liked; at least Aang waited patiently until she let go of him.

"_What_ do you think you were doing? You know we have to stay together!" Katara said angrily, jabbing her finger at Sokka as he held up his hands as if to ward off an attack. That brief scare had not put her in the best of moods.

"Katara, we were just—"

"Hey, where's Momo?"

Stopping their argument, both Sokka and Katara blinked in surprise at Aang, who looked worried. A brief moment of stunned silence between the three ensued as the two siblings finally noticed that the lemur was gone.

"What?! I thought you had him!" Sokka exclaimed, glaring accusingly at Katara.

"Me?" Katara nearly shouted, "I was too busy trying to keep track of you guys!" Aang, after spending so much time with the brother and sister, recognized the danger signs and quickly stepped between the two scowling teenagers.

"It's nobody's fault, I'm sure he didn't get too far!"

"_Hey! _Get away from that!"

"Get back here you thieving flying bat creature!"

Jumping in surprise Aang glanced over his shoulder and his grey eyes widened in shock as he took in the sight of Momo running down the street away from them, a gold chain around his neck and a moon peach gripped in his hand while a short, bald man chased after him, swearing and waving a long wooden pole. A taller man, better dressed than the other merchant, was running after them, his face bright red while he screamed that the flying bat had stolen his gold.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Sokka said sarcastically while Aang and Katara stared speechlessly at the chaos Momo was causing as he tried to get away from the screaming men as fast as possible, knocking over vases, fruit stands, baskets and other expensive items in his hurry.

The lemurs shriek as he evaded the fruit merchant's pole jolted Aang out of his shock and he immediately whipped his staff around into his glider and shot into the air, yelling for Momo while Katara chased after him on foot.

Sokka stayed where he was for a moment, watching the difficulty Katara had at leaping over or avoiding the rolling barrels in the street or the spilled food and pottery and running people. Aang was barely managing to escape getting hit out of the sky by the many lanterns, canopies, banners, and wind chimes that overhung the street. People were starting to shout in panic and some of them were getting knocked over in the confusion.

"I suppose I should follow them," Sokka said with a heavy sigh, finally breaking into a run.

Quickly making the glider fly faster, Aang soared over the heads of the revenge-seeking merchants, trying to catch up to his pet before they—or someone else—did. Aang freed one hand to grab down at the lemur as Momo jumped off a display of hand-painted plates, sending them crashing them to the dirt ground.

"Momo!" Aang shouted as the lemur passed by him, just barely out of reach. His attention was so focused on the lemur Aang didn't see the ostrichhorse cart in front of him until it knocked into the end of his glider. As he struggled to regain control of his glider, Aang shouted "Sorry! Oops! Sorry!" as he knocked down two carts full of meat, a couple people and a sleeping cat.

Ahead of him, Aang saw Momo, still on the ground, bolting down the aisles, effortlessly evading the people trying to catch them and causing them to either trip over themselves, or crash into something.

"Igottagottagottagothim!" A five year old boy shouted, leaping off the edge of a shelf and tackling the lemur.

"Don't let him get away!" Aang and the two merchants shouted in unison, each trying to reach the small boy before the lemur's desperate struggles paid off. Squeezing with all his might, the chubby boy turned pink in the face with effort as the lemur hacked from the inability to breathe right; all this while the boy's mother screamed at him from a couple stalls down the street along with the chaos followed Aang, Katara, and the avenging merchants. Finally escaping, Momo became a white-and-black blur as he raced down the dirt street, leaving the boy staring in bafflement at the empty air his hands were clutching.

Flying over the boy and his irate mother, Aang refocused his attention on Momo. The lemur wasn't falling for that trick again, despite the many attempts by children and adult alike. A normal, boring day in the market just turned into one big chase that everyone on the street was suddenly apart of, a welcome distraction for most. (Well, except for the merchants whose goods were being destroyed.) Further down the avenue, ahead of all the destruction, Aang could see a strangely familiar cabbage merchant racing away, pushing his cart of cabbages as fast as he could.

"Look out!" Aang suddenly heard Katara shout just before fire works literally fired a couple feet in front of him after Momo damaged them. His eyes going wide, Aang yelped as he shot into the air, screaming as fireworks exploded close to his face to make everything he saw go white.

"Augghhh! I can't see!" Aang wailed, clutching at his eyes with one hand as his glider shot down to the ground, the shoppers and merchants alike dive bombing to the ground and covering their heads. Aang careened over them, hitting into banners so many times in a row that his glider became hopelessly tangled in them and Aang was suddenly free falling before a banner wrapped around his waist and arm jerked him to a standstill. Moaning, Aang squeezed his eyes shut as he heard the alarmed yells of the people below him, everyone shouting to get a ladder.

"Hey! That's the Avatar!"

Aang's eyes shot open, vainly trying to see all the blurry images below him. He couldn't see but he certainly could hear the uproar going on below him. Lifting the hand that tangled under him, Aang felt his head and his heart sank. His Earth Kingdom hat was gone, and now…

For the first time, Aang suddenly went beyond being annoyed at his pet to feeling angry at Momo. A little ways behind him, Katara finally caught up to Aang, breathing hard while taking in the whole situation with growing panic. Snatching up Aang's hat, Katara quickly undid the clasp on her water skin and shouted Aang's name over the noise of all the people trying to get up to the tangled Avatar.

A stream of water shot into the air, slicing through the banners holding Aang and his glider captive effortlessly. Suddenly free of his restraints, Aang flailed his arms wildly as he fell before remembering to air bend himself down. Once his feet touched the ground Aang stiffened; his sight had now returned enough to see the approaching crowd, a couple of the merchants shouting angrily for the Fire Nation guards.

Chuckling nervously, Aang backed away slowly, holding his hands palm out.

"Um…h-hi guys…" He stammered, trying discreetly to edge closer to his fallen glider while carefully watching the people approaching him, their expressions all ranging from rage to shock. "Um…sorry about the mess…I can fix that…" Moving so fast that the people watching him barely saw it Aang pounced on his staff and flipped it back into a glider, mentally noting the nicks in the woodwork with irritation.

"Aang!" Katara tried to shove pass the people in front of her but it was like pressing against a human wall. Soaring into the air Aang flew over the heads of the people just as they all rushed in to grab him. He saw Katara stumble, her blue dress and dark hair causing her to stand out and Aang immediately went lower, reaching down to grab her. "Hang on!" Aang shouted, holding her waist tightly with one arm as she screamed, throwing her arms around his neck and holding so tight that Aang nearly choked as he summoned more air to lift them into the air above the angry mob of people. Quickly fighting down his blush at how close Katara was and how tightly she was clinging to him, Aang focused on their currant situation.

"Where's Sokka?" Aang yelled, frantically searching the market streets for any sign of Sokka or Momo. Now that he knew Fire Nation was here, something that he really should have anticipated, it as impossible for them to be _that _lucky, it was all the more reason to leave.

"I don't know!" Katara managed to stop screaming to reply. "Last I checked he was right behind me!"

Meanwhile, a couple streets down, Sokka crouched in his hiding spot, waiting for Momo to creep closer to the pile of apples that had rolled off a shelf under his trap. After watching how far ahead Momo was and Aang and Katara's fruitless attempts to catch him, Sokka decided to cut the lemur off by going to the next street. After climbing over the wall, Sokka was in time to see the lemur bypass that street entirely, a mop of angry men and woman chasing him, waving anything from frying pans to loafs of pointy bread.

Grumbling, Sokka took off to the next street, watching as the lemur suddenly remembered he could fly and took to the air, hiding in a crack between a fish shack and a clothing store while the mob ran right by him.

Now, he was hiding himself while Momo crept right under his hiding spot, the gold chain and moon peach long gone. _…closer…_Sokka thought, waiting tensely as the lemur crept nearer.

"_HA!" _Sokka shouted, leaping down at Momo as he screeched in terror, hesitating enough for Sokka to put the water tribe bag he carried over the lemur's body. Quickly tying it shut Sokka watched as it bulged and bucked, Momo's angry hisses clearly conveying his displeasure. Smirking, Sokka simply shouldered the bag, and ignoring the weird looks he got from his moving bag he walked down the middle of the street to find Aang and Katara.

Suddenly Sokka stopped in his tracks, looking at the destroyed street ahead of him and at the sight of Aang crazily weaving through the air, his face contorted with the effort of air bending and holding Katara up at the same time. Sokka's eyes narrowed slightly as he saw the way Aang was supporting Katara before looking at the angry group of people running his way, chasing after Aang and Katara. His face paling, Sokka took a step backwards. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to show that he knew Aang and Katara right now…

And with that thought and one final glance behind him, Sokka took off at a dead run for the gates. Above him, high in the air, Aang saw where he was going, and decided that Sokka had a great idea. Katara yelped as what felt like an unseen hand propelled them high into the air, over the town, and then towards their camp site, leaving a chaotic mess in their wake.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Back at camp, things weren't as calm as they could have been…

"All that and we STILL don't have directions!" Sokka exclaimed in disgust, glaring at the still moving bag on the ground between the three friends.

"We can't just leave," Aang said slowly, rubbing the arm he had used to carry Katara. He might have pulled a muscle or four. She should take her own advice and eat less.

"Everyone in that town will think that the Avatar trashed their market place," Aang said glumly. "I shouldn't leave the situation like that."

"But you also can't walk back in there," Katara pointed out, crossing her arms and eyeing the town in the distance. "I doubt they'll even let you say two words before they throw you in prison for property damage and not being able to pay for it all."

"Nice going, Momo," Sokka said sarcastically, glaring at the now-still bag. For once, Aang didn't defend his pet. He was just as frustrated as Sokka.

"Well…if I couldn't go back maybe one of you could?" Aang said hopefully, making his eyes go big and pleading at Katara, knowing that she'd probably be the one to cave in. Just as he had hoped, Katara hesitated, looking as if she was debating it.

"…There's no way we could hope to pay back with all the damage that was done," Katara said firmly. "We'd be here too long. With all the uproar we caused, Zuko and Zhao will be able to find it out pretty fast. We need to leave tomorrow morning at the latest."

"But we still need directions," Aang reminded her. Sokka just glanced between the two of them, scratching the itch on his left wrist absently as he watched the argument play out.

"I can't go back either though," Katara replied. "They saw me with you; I'm sure they would recognize me."

Suddenly Sokka realized that they were all staring at him expectantly.

He shook his head vehemently. "No way."

"Sokka—"Aang began, a wheedling tone to his voice when he was interrupted by the bag lying in the middle of them suddenly bursting open, Momo's attempts of escape having finally worked.

Shaking his head, the lemur blinked in the bright sunlight for a moment before realizing that three very angry people were surrounding him, arms crossed and glares of doom written on their faces. Glares of doom directed at _him. _

His ears going down, Momo cowered for a moment, realizing that even his master was angry at him. Deciding that sticking around was a Very Bad and Foolish idea, Momo ran back into the bag, letting the flap fall over his tail as he huddled inside.

Turning away from the lemur Aang and Katara stared at Sokka, who stared back just as stubbornly. The impasse lasted for a minute or two before Sokka gave in with an exasperated sigh and dug out his cloak, tugging it on while muttering under his breath before stomping back to the town.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Sokka never did stop muttering until he reached the gate way, and then he stopped, nodding curtly to the Earth Kingdom sentry at the gate, who at first eyed him and then waved him on. Apparently, after the whole market place incident, the town had decided to post a sentry.

Sokka wandered past the two streets that had been totally demolished by Momo. The avenues were full of people cleaning up, many of them looking disgruntled and whispering about the Avatar to the people working next to them.

Suddenly one of his brilliant ideas struck him. Walking a little ways down the street, Sokka gave a low, impressed whistle.

"Whoa, what happened here?" Sokka asked the women cleaning next to him.

"The Avatar and his crazy pet, that's what." The woman said sourly.

"Really?" Sokka raised his eye brows. "Huh. What did the pet look like?" The woman stopped what she was doing and turned around; looking Sokka up and down as the teen plastered a smile on his face.

"We think it was a flying lemoobat." She said finally, as if deciding he was nothing more a curious bystander. Affecting a serious face, Sokka described Momo, asking if this was what the woman had seen.

"Yes, it was…" She said, suddenly looking apprehensive.

"The Avatar just saved your lives!" Sokka suddenly shouted, throwing his hands up and drawing everyone's attention to himself.

"That so-called flying lemoo is actually a very deadly animal; if the Avatar hadn't tried to capture it, it would have spread a disease to all your children and livestock if it had bitten them." Sokka watched with satisfaction as everyone's eyes widened and then they all began talking at once. Slipping away when no one was looking, Sokka strolled down the street, his chest puffed out. Well, that took care of _that_ problem. Now he only had to find directions.

But behind him on the streets, the smug teenager was unaware that what he had just said was being embellished and changed so radically that Sokka wouldn't have been able to realize that it was his tale…

Sokka had to ask five people before a teenaged girl said she could give him directions.

"Myself and my companions are traveling to the North Pole," Sokka explained, even as he was mentally cringing at how ugly the girl was with her ash darkened dirty pale blonde scraggly hair and crooked lopsided nose. "And I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction." He smiled charmingly, trying to charm the girl in front of him.

She smiled back at him, her cloudy pea green eyes sparkling. "If you want to go north, the shortest route would be over the mountains—" She glanced behind her at the towering peaks before looking back at Sokka— "But they aren't safe at all. You'll have to detour."

Sokka shrugged. "Okay, how long is the detour?"

"Ten days at the least. Depends on how fast you travel."

Sokka stared at her incredulously. "Nope. Not gonna work. What's so bad about the mountains that we can't just go over them?"

The girl's demeanor completely changed. Her relaxed posture became tense, her green eyes became angry, and she gripped Sokka's arm so suddenly that he jumped.

"The temperatures have been known to kill people up there; dangerous storms in which people become so lost that they die of cold. There's no wood for fire, no shelter, only snow and ice! Ice storms cause the death of many things in the passes…if you go up there, you'll die."

During the entire monologue, Sokka had continued to lean backwards as the girl continued to lean in, suddenly doubting this girl's sanity and thinking she was even freakier than he had first thought.

"Uh, thanks," Sokka said quickly, shrugging off her grip and retreating a couple feet since she still had that harsh look in her eyes. "Um…right…mountains bad…won't go therethanksforyourhelpbye!"

Quickly retreating, Sokka thought over what she had said. She was probably just exaggerating, he decided. After all, those mountains couldn't have any more powerful snow storms then he had survived in the South Pole.

Convinced, Sokka nodded to himself as he passed out of the gates. He would tell Aang and Katara what direction they had to go and then just warn that it would be very cold and keep the blankets out and maybe bring with some bundles of wood for fire. Smiling to himself, Sokka felt like he had everything under control and hurried back to camp as the sun started to set.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

He squinted in the early morning sunlight, thrusting his dagger into its scabbard as he stared out at the forest looming ahead of him. He was standing on the high metal wall of a Fire Nation fortress, gazing out at the land before him, drinking in the fresh air after spending so many days in prison.

Behind the impassive face he presented to the world, the young man was rapidly thinking, remembering as he waited for his "men" to join him at the fortress gate.

*0*0*0*

"_Remember, you only have four weeks before I expect you back," Lazar turned from the window to give the teenager standing in front of him a pointed look. "If you've failed to return by that time, I'll not only send out search parties for you and renew the claim on your head, but I'll burn down that forest you once called home." The captain smirked, enjoying his sense of power as he watched the teen's hands twitch slightly as a flash of rage flickered in his eyes for a brief moment. _

"_I'll do my best to be back then." The words were cold and they had a faint mocking undertone to them that made the captain narrow his eyes suspiciously at the boy. Striding over to his desk, Captain Lazar picked up a parchment scroll that was lying there and handed it to the youth, returning the glare laid on him. _

"_These are the coordinates of where the Avatar was last sighted, and any travel patterns he has that might be useful," Lazar explained as the boy eyed the sealed scroll. _

"_My men will have to listen to you," the captain continued, turning away again from the boy and looking out the window at the Fire Nation soldiers milling about. "You will be able to do what you must in order for my plan to work, but you still will have to answer to my lieutenant." Lazar turned around, eyeing the teenager and his stiff posture, knowing that if he wasn't careful this one might escape. And that meant worse than bad news for him if he did. _

"_Do you understand me, wolf-eyes?" _

_Cold, charcoal black eyes narrowed until they were small slits. _

"_You already know my name is Jet, so stop calling me 'wolf eyes'." He ground out menacingly. _

"_You didn't answer my question, _wolf eyes._" Lazar leaned forward, putting enough force behind the words that it almost sounded like a bark. Leaning forward himself, challenge practically reeking from every poor, Jet smirked, undaunted by the angry fire bender. _

"_I understand." _

_Giving the youth a stunning back hand slap in reward for the show of defiance, Lazar grinned. _

"_Excellent." _

*0*0*0*

Jet was abruptly shook out of his thoughts when his keen hearing picked up the sound of snarling komodo rhinos, and the heavy clamp of armor and rough voices coarsely bantering with one another.

Looking over his shoulder, Jet saw that the party of men had nearly reached the gate; Lazar was hanging near the back with a man who could only be the lieutenant he had spoken of. With one last glance at the snow capped mountains in the far distance, Jet jumped down to the gate where the captain was approaching with his men.

His sudden appearance nearly made the firebenders in front of the group flinch before their faces quickly gave way to disgust as they recognized the teen in front of them. Feelings mutual, Jet sneered at them as he fingered his sheathed T-Hook swords that had been returned to him, watching as the soldiers began to mount up. Captain Lazar approached with the man he had been talking to earlier, the reins to a komodo rhino in his hand.

"Here," Lazar said bluntly, shoving the reins into Jet's hands. Resisting the urge to recoil from the man, Jet simply mounted the beast as quick as he could, even though the creature seemed to be intent on unseating him.

The gates started to slowly open and Jet stared straight ahead, his heat beginning to pound harshly as he realized that his plan had actually worked and he was on his way.

"Remember what I said." Jet glanced at the captain out of the corner of his eyes just as the two gates had opened all the way. Jet nodded brusquely.

"We ride north!" Jet shouted, urging his rhino ahead as he and his company galloped out of the gateway and towards the lands ahead.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

After an initial delay with Sokka, they began flying over the Ice Mountains. So far there had been no real trouble, but as the day progressed dark clouds suddenly began to gather over them. When they got near the high pass, one of those clouds seemed to descend behind them because the light immediately went dim and murky. The temperature started dropping so many degrees that Sokka and Katara had dug out their winter coats, shuddering. Snow started to fall, at first soft flurries that Momo jumped up to try and eat, and then later becoming little pellets that stung your face.

Aang was sitting on Appa's head, knowing that it would help the bison if he was there to navigate. He was paler then usual from the cold, and his special wind proof clothes kept out the freezing wind. Aang was quickly becoming worried with the situation. Momo was hiding in his arms, trembling violently. His fur, normally warm and soft, was cold to the touch and stiff with half frozen snow that clung to his coat. The snow seemed to become more frequent as the wind started to rise in pitch, echoing off the mountain side until it seemed like there were screaming hog monkeys all around them. In short, Aang was beginning to have trouble seeing anything that wasn't white snow and so was Appa, as was apparent by the near misses of colliding with the high stones surrounding them.

"How are you guys doing?" Aang shouted back to the huddled water tribe siblings, risking a quick glance over his shoulder before returning his gaze ahead.

"Okay." Katara grit out between her teeth, arms clamped over her chest tight trying to conserve as much body heat as possible.

"Horrible," Sokka wailed at nearly the same time. "Aang, I'm freezing. Can't you find a cave for us to rest in or something?"

"This storm is as bad as the ones in the South Pole," Katara added, and for some reason Sokka cringed when he heard that. Aang grimaced. With night the temperature would drop even more, and they had foolishly forgotten to bring any fire wood with them. Plus, Aang had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to find a cave in this storm…

"Look around you. Can you see anything except white?" Aang replied, his voice sharper then usual due to the deep uneasiness settling in his gut.

"Aang, this is a blizzard," Sokka yelled over the wind, "We need to find some sort of shelter before it gets even worse!" Aang's troubled face glanced back at the brother and sister again, noting the paleness of their normally brown skin, unaware of the corpse like whiteness of his own.

"Okay, start looking for a good spot!" Aang called back over his shoulder, shuddering as the wind found a way into his clothes. A fire really didn't sound too bad at all right now. Appa suddenly started weaving a little, groaning to himself.

"Appa?" Aang exclaimed his eyes widening in fear as Appa drifted a little lower to the ground. Leaning forward, blinking rapidly against the snow that clung to his eye lashes, Aang saw that all the snow clinging and freezing to the fur around Appa's eyes was making it even more difficult for the bison to see. _What do I do? _Aang thought franticly, his mind racing to find a solution, but it kept coming up with zilch.

"Appa can't see!" He screamed over the increased howling of the wind, the force of it whipping the snow around them up into the air like a sandstorm. By now he could barely make out Sokka and Katara's faces, except he could tell that they were quickly becoming rattled by what was happening.

Aang's fingers were painfully numb from the severe cold and slipped from Appa's reins as the bison wheeled sharply to the left to avoid a rock wall that had suddenly materialized out of seemingly now where. Suddenly the shivering ball of fur in Aang's arms went limp.

"Momo!" Aang yelled in panic, quickly looking down at the lemur to discover that the creature's eyes were half lidded with a glazed look in them that scared Aang.

"What's happening?!" Sokka asked, crawling forward when he saw Aang's frenzied attempts to get a reaction from his pet.

"I can't get Momo to wake up!" Aang answered his grey eyes huge as his attention was fixed on the small creature.

"Aang! The reins!"

His head snapping up, Aang quickly grabbed the reins with his right hand, jerking Appa right to avoid hitting a vague shadowy object, his left arm protectively wrapped around the still lemur.

The black clouds above them, the only thing that wasn't white, suddenly gave a thunder crack so loud that all three of the kids covered their ears, shouting in pain as Appa moaned at the loud noise. Momo stayed silent.

Before the ringing in his ears could even go away, Aang felt something hard and sharp slice his cheek. Starting in surprise, the Avatar felt hail begin to rain down on them, some pieces so painful that Aang was left breathless as he hunched over Momo, distantly hearing Sokka and Katara's shouts of pain through his cold and pain-induced foggy mind.

Instinct suddenly took over and almost before it even took conscious thought Aang summoned a large, protective air bubble around them, creating it thick enough that the ice bounced off it.

"Are you all right?" He heard Katara ask in a normal voice since the rush of the wind was muted by Aang's bubble. Aang nodded as he looked behind him, noticing with concern Sokka's expression of pain as he rolled off of his sisters back. _He must have used his body as a shield for Katara, _Aang thought fleetingly, impressed by his friend.

Aang's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as Appa crashed into the mountain side, the air bubble preventing anything from touching the bison or his passengers. But Aang, who hadn't been paying much attention, found his concentration shattered as his air bubble took the impact, bouncing them off the rocks just before it disappeared and the ice and wind came roaring in again.

Hearing someone screaming, and realizing with a strange detachment that it was him, Aang held onto Momo and the reins as hard as he could as Appa spiraled out of control. Leaving the relative safety of Appa's head, Aang found himself flung into the air, the only thing keeping him with the bison the reins.

Abruptly Aang was slammed into the surface of a rock, the rough uneven texture biting through his clothes and tearing his skin as his side and head impacted hard enough that Aang heard a sickening crack. Bright white and black spots flashed in front of his eyes as his hand lost its grip on the reins. Aang fell out of the sky and landed hard on the ground, the snow cushioning his fall somewhat but it still took his breath away. He started rolling wildly down the hill, snow flying everywhere as he thought he heard Sokka scream his name in panic.

Aang's ribs burned and his head was still making strange colors dance in front of his eyes when his out-of-control tumble was stopped by slamming into the back of another rock.

It was too much for his injured body.

Arching his back in pain, Aang managed to cry out once before his entire world turned black and he went limp in the snow, the motionless lemur still clutched tightly to his chest as snow rapidly began covering them.


	3. Raidon

I've completely re-organized/re-wrote the scenes with Aang just waking up and meeting Raidon and the others. Speaking of Raidon, he is now more fleshed out then the shadow he was before. A clichéd scene with Katara blubbering like a baby and Aang and Sokka comforting her is gone. Not that all versions are bad, but mine just plain sucked and had to go. Hopefully, my replacement isn't another common writing. I haven't come across anything strikingly similar, but then I haven't read everything so let me know if you think it's another overdone plot element. Also, my little mention of the Water Bending Scroll is to be considered AU, since Katara had it with her in _The Library_ episode. (At least I'm assuming.) We get a better look at a lesser character, Makoto in this case, and then a closer look into Jet's dynamics with his new found alliance with his enemies.

Chapter Two

Raidon

He remembered the cold; cold that had quickly numbed him, until he had felt warm. Stirring restlessly, Aang sluggishly tried to become fully alert, but a strange, black murkiness kept his eyes shut and his mind unaware of what was going on. He faintly registered pain; but he couldn't tell where it was.

Suddenly his face burned. Not simple, pleasant warmth from sitting too close to a fire for too long; they _burned_, like fire in his blood. After the extreme cold, the warmth of his own thawing body was unbearable. His senses were on fire and his mind was cloudy. He had no control over his thoughts and his consciousness floated freely. Aang moaned, shifting uneasily.

Faintly he seemed to make out the sound of his own whimpering, the pain in his body forcing him to sluggishly open his eyes. Colors swirled together in a haze; Aang couldn't concentrate, although he was now aware of something above him, working over him as a strange pain in his head began to throb. Of course, once he realized how much his head hurt, his right side and shoulder seemed to start screaming, along with all the little aches and pains he hadn't been aware enough to register earlier.

"Where…where…" Aang moaned, tossing side to side restlessly, giving up at making sense of the shadowy shapes in front of his eyes and closing them so there was only darkness.

Aang felt something touch his lips, and then a hand on his head, tilting his head back so that he was forced to drink. The liquid tasted vile as it slid down his throat; Aang was helpless to fight against whatever was being done to him. Almost before the hand and cup at his lips pulled away, Aang gratefully sank back into the darkness that came up to overwhelm him and knew no more.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

The next time Aang neared consciousness he had no idea of how much time had passed, where he was, or why he hurt so badly.

Keeping his eyes shut, remembering what happened last time and still clinging to the last threads of sleep before becoming awake, Aang was in that half asleep state, where the line between reality and dreams is blurred.

His body still hurt, but he knew it would hurt more once he was awake. Aang felt warm, but it was nothing like the burning heat he had felt before. Breathing slowly, Aang began shifting through his memories, recalling when he had woken Sokka up at their campsite until he had worked out all the details following that. After remembering his last few minutes of consciousness, Aang shoved aside the desire to go back asleep and began to wake up. Aang had to find out where Katara, Sokka, Appa and Momo were and why he wasn't cold and didn't feel the wind on his face.

He only heard the low hiss and pop of a fire.

_Did someone find me…? _Aang thought, barely able to form a coherent sentence in his mind. _Who could it be if it isn't Katara or Sokka? _Aang knew he wasn't outside. There was a blanket on his chest and a pillow under his cheek. He was lying in a real bed for the first time in weeks.

After a long effort, Aang managed to open his eyes, blinking slowly as everything around him came into focus. The first thing he saw was Katara's worried face bent over his, watching him intently. Aang was uncannily reminded of when he first woke up in Katara's arms after being frozen in the ice berg.

If she was here, did that mean she and the others were okay? Were they safe? Aang just blinked as Katara's concerned face relaxed, smiling at him in relief. Aang felt her squeeze his hand gently.

"Hey," She said softly, "Glad to see you're awake. You scared us." Aang smiled weakly, almost too exhausted to even speak.

"Katara," Aang whispered, his eyes closing as if of their own accord; he was satisfied that she was real and more importantly, unharmed by the looks of things.

"I'm right here." Aang felt her sit beside him on the bed, still gripping his hand reassuringly.

"I know," Aang murmured faintly, a small smile on his lips before falling back asleep.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Aang was having a pleasant dream about running through the Southern Air Temple before the war when he was rudely interrupted by something jumping on his chest and tugging on his ears while screeching. Aang's eyes shot open, and his disoriented brain took a few extra seconds before recognizing the round emerald green eyes staring at him.

"Momo!" Aang exclaimed happily, managing to squeeze the lemur in a one armed hug. "You're all right!"

Releasing the lemur so that he could snuggle down in between his arm and chest, Aang didn't see Katara anywhere near by. His mind now clearer, Aang managed to prop himself up with his elbow so he was able to see something other then the brown ceiling. His eyes quickly roved over his surroundings like they hadn't been able to earlier.

He was obviously in a cabin, judging by the size of the room and the fact that the only two doors leading out of it was a bedroom and the outside. Aang's bed was in front of a large fire, and the table next to him was full of bandages, salve, and an empty cup.

_I hope those bandages were only used for me, _Aang thought as he realized his shirt was missing and his chest was wrapped in the same white bandages on the table. Slowly reaching up, Aang felt the bandage wrapped around his head carefully while he finished looking around the room.

A chair accompanied the table, and at the far end of the room, a black pot was sitting on a larger table, a hearty aroma wafting from it that made Aang's stomach growl. A couple of makeshift beds were in the corner, and Aang thought he saw Sokka's ponytail peeking out from one of them. The one window in the room showed nothing, only darkness, so Aang assumed it was night and that the storm was probably still going on, if the wind wailing around the cabin was any indication. The steady patter of rain or hail filled the air accompanied by the noises of the fire.

The door leading outside suddenly was slammed open, making Aang jump as his eyes strained to see who it was. In his weakened state he was at a serious disadvantage, but he prepared himself to fight in the first few seconds when he could see no one.

"Who's there?" Aang called his voice weak but firm. "Show yourself!"

For several tense seconds, there was no reply. Then a short, elderly man stepped into the firelight, his bushy grey bread stiff with snow. The stranger was clad in dark, thick winter clothes, and his bright blue eyes could barely be seen under the man's thick eyebrows.

Slamming the door behind him, the stranger peeled off his gloves as he smiled at the airbender.

"So, I finally get the pleasure of meeting my patient, and when I do, he's ready to attack me!" The man chuckled, seeming to find that thought funny. Aang continued to watch him cautiously, still unsure if he should trust this man, when Katara came out of the bedroom and saw him. A wide grin spilt her face, and her previously subdued eyes sparked.

"Aang!" Katara raced past the stranger, not giving him a second glance as she reached Aang. Aang smiled up at her, still propped up on his elbow with Momo dozing somewhere in the covers, preoccupied by the strange old man.

"Katara, who is he?" Aang asked, gesturing to the man watching them. "Where are we? What happened?" Aang was becoming very frustrated with his lack of answers.

"Will you keep it down?" A new voice grumbled, conveying the depth of its owner's annoyance.

"Sokka, Aang's awake!" was Katara's excited reply.

"Huh?" Sokka's head shot out of his bundle of blankets, and he blinked drowsily at the group by the fire. "Hey, you're right, he is. Nice to see you finally up Aang. Now keep it down." Aang nodded hurriedly before stopping with a flinch, still focused on getting his questions answered.

"Um, Katara…?" He trailed off, hoping that she would get his point.

"Oh, right." Katara paused to gather her thoughts. "Aang, this is Raidon," she said, nodding at the old man taking off his heavy over coat. "He's an earth bender and helped us find you and Momo in the snow."

"When we got you and your lemur here," Raidon continued, easily picking up the narrative, "You were both suffering from severe cold and you had injuries too of course." Raidon nodded to Aang's bandaged chest and head. "The lemur recovered quickly enough, but you had a rougher time warming up." Aang easily recalled the burning sensation he had had earlier. "We put you by the fire, got some blankets on you and fed you some soup. I was concerned when you didn't wake up throughout all of this, and so I immediately checked your head wound and injured shoulder and ribs." Raidon paused, his face turning stern. "You had a concussion and we couldn't wake you. I think you might have been in a mild coma for a few days." Aang nodded, taking in all the information with some shock (How in the world did Katara and Sokka manage to find an earth bender up here? And he might have been in a _coma?_) when the last of Raidon's statement registered.

"Wait—_days? _How long have we been here?" Aang exclaimed looking at Katara for an answer since Sokka appeared to be half asleep.

"About three days," Katara replied, her voice quiet. "Appa's in Raidon's barn," She continued, anticipating Aang's next question. "He barely fits, but he's okay. Raidon's willing for us to stay until you've recovered enough to travel." Aang flashed a quick smile at the man as Raidon started to ladle soup into some wooden bowls.

"Thank you for saving us," Aang said to Raidon, all previous mistrust disappearing as gratitude rose in his eyes. "I don't think we could have survived in that blizzard for long."

Raidon nodded in agreement while Sokka finally woke up enough to get out of his bed and walk over to Aang's bed.

"Before you ask," Sokka began as he plopped on the end of Aang's bed making Momo grunt in annoyance. "Katara and I aren't hurt too badly. She has a couple minor cuts on her arms and some bruises, but that's it. And my back got a little cut up," Sokka admitted, glancing at Katara briefly before returning his gaze to Aang's pale face.

"A little?!" Katara said indignantly, crossing her arms as Raidon experimentally tasted his stew, made a face, and then hastily added more salt. "Your winter coat was in shreds just like the rest of your back!"

Eyes widening, Aang looked at Sokka in shock, and noticed the white bandages peeking around his shirt. So his hunch had been right; Sokka had protected Katara. Sokka grimaced, and then waved off Katara like a pesky scorpion bee.

"Anyway," Sokka said too loudly, "We wouldn't have been able to find you if Appa hadn't crashed into Raidon's chimney. Katara insisted to see if he would help, so she knocked and Raidon just happened to be an earth bender—" Sokka looked puzzled, as if finding it hard to believe that they had gotten lucky like that—"and even though it took a couple hours, we found you using his earth bending."

Aang simply nodded, leaning back down on his pillow, feeling tired again. Aang could tell that he wasn't being told everything in detail, but at that point he was willing to let it slide. Now that all his questions were answered, he felt sleep tugging at the corner's of his mind. At this point, Raidon appeared a bowl in his hands.

"If you're all done talking, you two can go eat your soup while I help your friend."

As Sokka and Katara went over to the table, Aang managed a small smile. "Thank you," He said, pulling himself up with effort, not wanting to use air bending in front of the man. Raidon may have saved them, but there was no room for missteps with Zuko always chasing them. As Aang began to eat, noting that the stew was a little salty, he noticed Raidon studying him closely.

"I've never seen anybody with tattoos like those before."

Aang choked on his soup and started coughing violently for a couple moments before glancing around Raidon at Sokka and Katara. Katara's face was frozen in panic, as if she had forgotten that Aang's appearance was rather unique, and Sokka was waving his arms back and forth shaking his head violently 'no.'

_No? How does that help me figure out what to say to him?_ Aang thought briefly before looking back at Raidon.

"Um…yeah, I got this from a guy back in Omashu," Aang said quickly, blurting out the first thing that came to mind, pointing to the arrow on his forehead. Raidon arched one eyebrow.

"Still, it's pretty strange that you have tattoos all over your body." Aang fought back the urge to recoil, having forgotten that Raidon had probably needed to change him out of his wet shirt and pants when he was rescued.

"They look an awful lot like air bender tattoos." Raidon added, his eyes boring into Aang questioningly. Eyes now widened as far as they could go, Aang frantically thought about what to say to that.

"Um…Uh…w-well you see uh…" At that point, Aang's ever present headache worsened and he winced, moaning.

"My head…" He muttered, blindly setting his bowl on the bedside table and holding his throbbing head as if it might vibrate off his neck. Raidon immediately stopped his questioning and stood up.

"Let me get you some pain reliever for that," Raidon said over his shoulder as he opened a chest of herbs, busily shuffling through packets and vials. Leaning back against the pillows, Aang closed his eyes, relieved. That couldn't have been better timing. But now that he had closed his eyes, the need for sleep intensified to the point that when Raidon turned back with his cup of tea, Aang was fast asleep.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Sokka carefully watched Raidon as he left the cabin, going out to the barn to check on his own animals and Appa. Sokka thought that the man half-expected Appa to eat them. Aang was still asleep by the fire, a slight crease between his eye brows, Momo sleeping next to him as usual. Raidon's cabin was extremely boring, and Sokka's eyes roved around trying to find something to distract him while he finished the last of the soup.

Katara was staring broodingly into the fire, a pensive look on her face. Sokka couldn't help but frown as best as he could while drinking. Those long, terrifying hours of trying to find Aang were hard for him to remember, and Katara seemed to be more effected by it than he was. Of course, the added fact that she had also been the one to initially reach Aang after Raidon located him might have something to do with it, Sokka mused to himself, licking his wooden spoon.

He had thought Aang and Momo were dead when he first saw them and only to himself would he admit that his heart had leapt into his throat and time seemed to freeze for a few seconds before Raidon announced he wasn't dead.

Getting up from the table, Sokka ignored his sore back as best as he could while he walked over to Katara. He would have let her be since Katara had healed his and everyone else's' injuries earlier that morning (although he was still sore) but he didn't want to sleep again. He had slept so much during these past few days that he had no interest in trying.

Gingerly sitting down, careful of his sore body, Sokka sighed gustily and stared at the fire, letting Katara stay in her trance for a moment longer. But when he spotted her brief, worried glance at Aang, he decided that she needed something other to dwell on other then how close they had come to losing Aang.

"Don't you think Raidon hit too close to home earlier?" Sokka asked, taking the opportunity to talk about it with Katara without the danger of Raidon overhearing. Katara jumped slightly, looking startled at being addressed for a moment before frowning thoughtfully.

"Yes. But it would do no good to deny it since I'm sure he's already guessed." Katara returned her gaze to the fire, uncomfortable about the fact that Raidon had that kind of information about Aang.

"But who knows," She added after a brief pause, forced optimism in her voice, "Maybe nothing will come of it. I mean, he's not Fire Nation and he lives up here alone."

Sokka shrugged. "Maybe." Honestly, with all the uproar Momo had caused in the mountain village, he didn't think that one more person knowing Aang's identity would make that big of a difference. Although Sokka still didn't like the thought of more people knowing; that was just tempting fate even more than they usually did to be going around blurting out or giving away Aang's identity.

They fell silent again, and Sokka found himself wondering when Raidon would be back. The storm had stopped, but everything was nearly buried with snow, and Sokka didn't want to try to put his coat back on after how much effort he had had to go through to take it off when they got here. So that ruled out the option of going outside to find something to do. Fidgeting restlessly with the edge of his shirt, Sokka glared at the fire before glancing at Aang. Sokka couldn't repress his wince. Aang looked horrible, even when compared to how closely Sokka's back had looked like shredded meat a couple days ago.

Sokka idly began tapping his heels against the wooden post of Aang's bed, becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of anything remotely interesting to do. All he could do was try to pry conversation out of Katara, or watch her watch the fire, or watch Aang breath or stare at the brown ceiling or the bucket full of dirty dishes. _Man, now I wish I hadn't eaten all the stew, _Sokka grumbled mentally, resuming glaring at the fire.

"I'm bored."

"Get used to it." Her reply came instantly, and she obviously didn't care if Sokka was about to suffer insanity through boredom.

"Why should I?" Sokka shot back, although he was still uninterested by the dumb argument.

"Because you don't have a choice." Was Katara's answer, and to Sokka's sudden delight he heard the unmistakable edge of irritation in her voice. Well, he _was_ bored, and since nothing better offered to come up, Sokka decided to make the most of it.

"Oh yeah? Say's who? You're not the boss of me," Sokka taunted, continuing to keep up the constant noise of his feet hitting Aang's bed. Katara sighed heavily, and then glared at Sokka.

"If you're bored, why don't you do our host a favor and wash the dirty dishes and stop bugging me?"

"Why can't _you_ wash dishes? You're the waterbender! Besides, all you're doing is staring at Aang!" Sokka thought he saw a vein stand out on Katara's forehead.

"In that case, why I don't I just—!" Katara bit off whatever she was going to say (and Sokka knew it wasn't going to be polite judging by her voice) when the front door suddenly opened and Raidon stepped in, shivering and briskly wiping the snow off his shoulders.

As one, Katara and Sokka turned back to the fire and stared blankly into it; both of them sending off such a powerful aura of a foul mood, that Raidon paused and blinked at them. Studiously ignoring Raidon's gaze, Sokka began to pick his teeth, listening to the sound of Raidon struggling to take off his heavy snow boots.

"Sokka, could you do me a favor?" Raidon asked his blue eyes pleading as he approached the fire to warm up, now free of his boots.

"Um…sure…" Sokka said slowly, wondering where this was headed.

"It appears that um…" Raidon coughed into his hand for a second, appearing faintly uneasy before continuing. "Appa didn't make it outside in time to…take care of some…necessary bodily functions." Sokka stared at Raidon for a couple seconds, trying to figure out what the guy meant, when it suddenly clicked and Sokka turned rather green.

"You…you want me to…clean _that_ up?" Sokka hated how his voice cracked. Raidon leveled him with a cool stare.

"Yep. That things nearly the size of my bed. It ain't my responsibility." Sokka's mouth opened and closed speechlessly for a few seconds while Katara snorted as she tried unsuccessfully not to laugh.

"Well then, Katara can help me." Sokka said, his disgust momentarily forgotten by the need to make Katara suffer along with him. Katara immediately stopped coughing and since her back was to Raidon, she gave Sokka a glare that chilled him before turning to Raidon.

"But Raidon needs my help in here, don't you?" She said sweetly, putting on her most innocent expression. The look that usually ended up with Sokka getting the short end of the stick.

"Well…" Raidon murmured, looking unsure.

"Of course you need me in here!" Katara cried, looking hurt. "Who else will help you with the dishes and Aang?" Sokka knew he better find some gloves and a nose plug when he saw the way Raidon's face lit up at the word 'dishes'.

"Katara's right Sokka!" Raidon said firmly as Katara turned back around, a smug gleam in her eyes. "I want you to take care of it immediately before…it….freezes."

_Only because you saved us from certain death, _Sokka hissed to himself as he stomped away to go grab his winter coat. _That's the only reason why I'd _ever _do something like this!_ As Raidon prepared another one of his nasty tea drinks for Aang Sokka continued his sour attitude as he tugged on his boots and dug out a scrap of fabric to plug his nose with.

Why was he always the one getting stuck with these kinds of jobs? Just as Sokka was about to open the door after finally getting his coat on and grabbing a shovel, Raidon had one more thing to say to him.

"Sokka, don't forget that once you're done with that, I need you to bring more firework in and then chop more up."

Groaning, Sokka threw the door open without replying and then waded through the snow until he could shut the door. As Sokka trudged through the snow, and struggled to breath in the icy cold wind without freezing his windpipe, he realized one thing.

Next time he'd remember that being bored was bettering than getting on Katara's nerves. Maybe.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

After another couple days of Aang recovering with Katara doing housework while Raidon tended to Aang and Sokka did chores, Aang was finally allowed out of bed.

Despite his occasional dizziness, Aang was almost completely recovered. Katara had been able to heal the surface wounds on his shoulder and side (which had astounded Raidon) although his cracked ribs had to remain bound and his shoulder was still tender.

The gash on his head was also healed by Katara, but Raidon had still warned him that he would have headaches and bouts of dizziness for the next five days or so. Just like Sokka who had come to a similar conclusion a while back, Aang found Raidon's cabin to be mind-numbingly boring. He couldn't go outside because Raidon was against it, saying he wasn't healthy enough, and Katara didn't want him airbending. She had let him waterbend for a while when Raidon was gone, but after he had accidentally doused the fire and covered the whole room in steam, Katara said no to that too.

So as of right now, Aang was drumming his fingers restlessly against the table he was sitting at, completely listless since Katara had assured him that she could take care of supper and that he should 'just rest.'

_That's all I'm ever doing lately, _Aang thought in mild disgust. _Resting. _Sighing for the second time in as many minutes, Aang watched Katara as she moved around gathering ingredients. Momo was outside visiting with Appa, and Aang wished he could be there with them. Suddenly an idea popped in his head and a slow, devilish smile crept across his face while his grey eyes gleamed. Quickly schooling his features into his most innocent expression, Aang got up from the table.

"Hey, Katara, I'm gonna go take a nap in the spare bedroom, okay?"

"Sure Aang," Katara said, focusing on the egg she was breaking into the pan. "Let me know if you need something."

Scarcely believing his luck, Aang hurried out of the room and then shut the door. Turning around and running to the bed Aang quickly arranged the pillows on the bed to look like him. It wouldn't stand on a close inspection, but if someone would just glance at it, it would fool them. Satisfied with his handiwork, Aang turned to the single window in the bedroom.

Aang grinned. _Freedom. _Then his grin faltered. _Wait, how am I going to get out without breaking the window? _Groaning, Aang realized that since Raidon lived this high up in the mountains that the window wasn't designed to open. After finally convincing himself that he couldn't break the window and then fill the hole with a frozen block of ice, Aang threw himself down on the bed, his normal good nature gone and replaced with a sulk as he stared up at the ceiling. Maybe he could get Sokka to help him escape…

Sitting up, his bad mood forgotten, Aang got a sneaky smirk on his face as the wheels in his brain started turning to figure out a way to convince Sokka to help him escape from the confines of the cabin…

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

As Sokka lay in bed and stared up at the ceiling, he found himself wondering why things always went so unfairly for him.

Earlier that day he had come inside after feeding Raidon's animals, Sokka found himself grabbed by the shirt with a hand over his mouth and then pulled into Raidon's bedroom. The door had shut quickly and as Sokka turned to see who his attacker was, he saw Aang. The younger boy was fed up with being kept in the cabin and had wanted to go outside to see Appa and Momo. And he wanted Sokka to help sneak him out. Knowing what Katara and Raidon's reactions to that would be, Sokka had laughed in Aang's face and told him to forget it.

Until the little brat had turned traitor and threatened to tell Katara exactly what had happened to her beloved water bending scroll and how it had meant its untimely demise. So Sokka had snuck Aang out the front door by taking both Katara and Raidon out to look and see how much food for Appa was left. They were under the pretence that Aang was still napping, when actually the airbender had snuck out the front after they went into the barn and then had hid behind the house. Once they had gone inside, Aang raced to the barn and saw Appa again, and after that he began literally bouncing off the walls.

Aang and Sokka had been having a fun time for the first time in days…until the door to the barn had slammed open and Katara stood in the doorway, obviously seething by the brightness of her face and the way her teeth were gritted.

After receiving the worst tongue lashing of his life by Katara and Raidon, Sokka's supper was given to Momo and he was assigned even more chores by Raidon. As he now lay seething in bed, he glared over at Aang who was sleeping on the floor next to him, Raidon having taken his bed. Since according to him "_If you're well enough to be disobeying orders and sneaking out of cabins, you're well enough to stop receiving special treatment and sleep on the floor like everyone else!" _

"This is your fault!" Sokka hissed, careful that Raidon didn't hear him. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Aang crack one eye open and then sigh.

"Yeah. I know." There was a brief silence, filed by the sound of the ever present fire that was kept going to keep the cabin warm.

"You could at least say you're sorry." Sokka muttered sullenly as his stomach growled, wishing he wasn't able to still smell the supper Katara had cooked.

"Sorry." Another silence ensued, and by the time Aang talked again Sokka was nearly asleep.

"Hey Sokka, when did Katara get so bossy?"

Sokka's eyes flew open and he snorted, trying to keep himself from laughing outright at Aang's annoyed question. Aang annoyed at his sister? Well that didn't happen often.

"What do you mean 'when'? Katara's always been bossy," Sokka snickered, forgetting to lower his voice in his amusement.

"Sokka! Be quiet and go to sleep!"

Cringing, Sokka glowered at the ceiling and deliberately ignored Aang as the airbender rolled over and went back to sleep. Sighing heavily, Sokka decided to follow Aang's example and then went to sleep.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Two days later, everyone woke up early and met outside the cabin. Appa was led out of the barn, and his saddle was re-attached by Aang when Raidon had ducked into the cabin to grab a bag of food and medicine he wanted them to take with. When the final bag had been bound under the tarp, Aang, Katara, Sokka and Momo turned back to Raidon, who stood smiling.

"Thank you for all your help Raidon," Aang said thankfully, shaking the man's hand. "We wouldn't be here right now if you hadn't."

His smile widening, Raidon gripped Aang's hand tightly. "It was a pleasure to help you, Avatar Aang." Aang stiffened and locked gazes with Raidon's dancing blue eyes before relaxing and smiling back.

"This cabin will feel lonely when you're gone," Raidon admitted ruefully, shaking his head. "I'm going to miss having young folk around. I'm not much of a hermit."

Sokka tilted his head to the side. "So just move back into down when the passes open in the spring," He said bluntly, as if it was painfully obvious.

For a moment Raidon looked startled before chuckling wryly at himself. "I'll plan on that." As a short pause came, Aang couldn't help but gaze ahead, taking in the clear view of the land ahead that was made possible by the cloudless sky today. Raidon followed his gaze.

"The badlands," Raidon began, "Have a river running through it and then out into the forest. Use it as your guide but camp a distance away from the river to avoid the desert wildlife." As the friends nodded in acknowledgement to Raidon's advice, a cold gusty wind blew by causing everyone to shiver.

"We should probably be going," Katara said, glancing up at the towering peaks above her. "Thanks again for your help Raidon," She added, smiling at the older man before giving him a quick.

"Yeah, thanks." Sokka chimed, although he couldn't help but feel that his thanks was already shown by all those chores Raidon had him do nearly all the eight days they had stayed here.

"You're welcome," Raidon called after them as they all clamored onto Appa.

"Good bye!" Aang shouted back, and then to Appa he said "yip yip."

As Appa launched himself up into the sky, Aang glanced back in time to see Raidon watching them leave, a sad smile on his lips. Then the cabin and its owner disappeared from view as the mountain walls curved into a turn. They were all quiet for a moment or two, falling into companionable silence while Momo toyed with the end of Katara's braid, lazily flicking his tail.

"We need to make sure that before we leave the river we all take baths." Katara said suddenly as she caught sight of the jewel-like snake of water ahead of them in the terrain.

"Are you we saying we stink?" Sokka asked indignantly, folding his arms. In the background, Aang looked startled and then discreetly sniff his arm pits before freezing and jerking his nose away, his face sickened. Lazily, Katara's eyes turned from the river to consider Sokka and then Aang's back.

"Yes." She said bluntly, her face unreadable. "We all do." Making a face, Sokka reluctantly nodded his head in agreement before pulling out his knife and whetstone to pass the time and sharpen his blade. After another hour, they finally passed out of the mountains and Appa flew down lower so that they could get a closer look at the land beneath them.

"Behold the badlands!" Aang exclaimed melodramatically, a wide grin on his face as he turned around to his friends. Katara and Sokka leaned over Appa's saddle in curiosity and gazed down at the wild, untamed land below them.

"Its like millions of tiny desert canyons," Sokka muttered. The badlands stretched on for miles, a large river winding in and out of the canyons. At some points there were little valleys covered in grass and wildflowers but it was mostly a vast, desert wasteland covered in cacti and sage.

"Its pretty," Katara said, appreciatively eyeing the meadows with the wildflowers. "It doesn't look too bad."

Sokka gave her a skeptical look. "Do you honestly expect that crossing even a small desert will be "not too bad"?"

"Quit being so negative Sokka," Katara reprimanded. Aang nodded, quickly agreeing with her.

"Yeah; I mean, wedon't have to worry about Zuko being on our tail," Aang remarked as he lowered Appa even closer to the ground in an attempt to leave the cold air behind. "We're miles away from the sea and that river is too shallow to sail on."

"Plus, just think of the nice cold bath you're going to have," Katara said teasingly, smirking at Sokka's exasperated face. Sokka rolled his eyes and he began sharpening his blade with renewed vigor.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Jet held his small spy glass up to his eye. Slowly, he surveyed the land from the small hill he was on until he caught sight of a tiny village at the foot of ice capped mountains.

"Do you see that town?" Jet said as he handed the spy glass to the lieutenant of the Fire Nation troops. The man was tall, near his early forties with graying hair evident in his top knot and sideburns. He had a birthmark running over his left eye, and under it was a black patch. Makoto, his single dark brown eye grim, took the spy glass and peered through it until he saw it.

"It looks like an ordinary Earth Kingdom village," He said curtly, wondering just what this teen was trying to pull.

"If we don't stop we could make it by nightfall." Jet muttered to himself. Makoto glanced back at the puffing rhinos and the saddle sore men. His men were used to long days of training, but the drive Jet had pushed them with seemed almost unearthly. The teen himself had to experiencing some discomfort after his long days of inactivity, but his face was a blank mask. Not that Makoto cared if Jet was tired. He didn't. But it would make things a lot easier to control if the kid wasn't so damn unpredictable…

"No. We need to slow down or else the rhino's will start go lame." Makoto said firmly, even though it was an exaggeration on the rhino's part. Jet's head snapped up and he glared at the lieutenant, black eyes smoldering. _Wolf-eyes._ _How appropriate._ The lieutenant thought scornfully, meeting Jet's gaze with a blank stare.

"Who's in charge of this expedition?" Jet said complacently. If Lazar wouldn't have had him killed or sent to the mines, Makoto would have struck the teen down where he stood. If he was an officer under him things would be easier but no…everything had to be so much more complicated.

"You are," Makoto said through gritted teeth, hating his lack of control.

"And I say we make it to that village by nightfall." Jet answered sharply, his eyes still narrowed in irritation. "Tell the men to move out." Jet added and glanced back at the mountains. His mouth tightening in a straight line, Makoto went down the hill and started yelling at the men to keep moving. Why the kid wanted to go to some Earth Kingdom village was none of his concern. He just had to make sure that he and his men stayed alert in order to spot any trickery Jet might try to pull.

Watching the lieutenant leave, Jet inwardly snarled, but kept his face in its impassive expression. Murderous fire benders. Only for now would he tolerate them. It was unavoidable if he wanted his freedom along with his people. If his freedom fighters saw him supposedly working for the enemy, he had no idea what they'd do…but once he met up with them again, he would tell them how he had escaped and make them see it his way. He always did.

Jet urged his rhino on. _This direction points north and if they're still going to the North Pole like I know they are…_Jet's mouth twitched as he started thinking out his attack plan. _They'll be going this way. There'll be no escape for them. Just like there was no escape for me. _


	4. Travels

Okay let's see…this chapter was originally only ten pages, but now fully re-written, it's about 12 pages of solid story. With Jet I've added a flashback of the day of his capture, as well as some background and how he got to the Fire Nation fortress with Lazar and didn't remain at the Earth Kingdom Town prison. One other side note is that the reason I had Sokka give the firebenders a "tip" is because of what he said about the valley being safe without Jet. ("This valley will be safe; without you.") I tried to make this chapter as interesting as possible, and it's at least an improvement to my first version.

Chapter Three

Travels and the Badlands

Gingerly Aang touched his cheek, fingering the bad sunburn on it while gazing at his reflection in the river he was dangling his feet in. They hadn't been as prepared for the heat as well as they had thought, because by the end of yesterday everyone had painful deep red sunburns on their faces, or on any other part of their skin that was exposed.

All three friends were crowded in the only available shade by a scraggly tree growing near the water, Katara holding a makeshift sun shade made of sticks and grass over her face. Aang had offered her his Earth Kingdom hat, but Katara insisted that he wear it since he needed it more with his pale skin.

Appa and Momo were worn out by the blazing sun and were lying in the shallows of the river. Appa had his eyes closed and Momo was lazily dipping his tail in and out of the water, but otherwise stayed perched on Appa's leg.

Sokka, who was sitting next to Aang, scowled at his reflection, but quickly stopped since it stretched the damaged skin on his face. Aang caught a glimpse of the back of Sokka's burnt neck before the boy warrior plunged his head underwater and then came back up, shaking his ponytail.

"I can't wait until we reach the forest," Sokka muttered as he painfully wiped the water out of his eyes. "That way we can finally get under cover." Katara nodded in agreement while Aang copied Sokka by waterbending river water into his face.

"Does that help?" Katara asked, eyeing the water running down Aang and Sokka's faces.

"Yup," Aang said cheerfully. "Watch." And a split second later, Aang called up enough water from the river to douse Katara head to toe.

Sputtering, Katara sat up abruptly and looked down at her wet clothes in shock while Sokka laughed. Looking up, she narrowed her eyes at the grinning avatar.

"You must think you're really funny, huh?" She muttered darkly, moving one hand behind her back discreetly. Aang kept on grinning, unaware of Katara's plans until two tentacles of water shot out of the water and drug him in, along with Sokka.

After brief yelling match between Katara and Sokka, all three dripping teenagers climbed back onto Appa and resumed traveling. As Appa reluctantly flew into the sky, Aang thought he heard Katara mumble something to herself.

"What did you say?" Aang inquired, curious since he had nothing better to do.

"Oh, nothing." Katara responded lightly. "I was just saying that the weather's one extreme to another."

"What do you mean?" Aang asked, rolling onto his stomach and watching Katara.

"Just that the mountains were so cold, and now the badlands are so hot," Katara said, a trace of annoyance in her voice as she glared at the canyon country below them. "Its so hot here you could cook an egg on a rock," She commented after taking a quick swig from her water skin. Aang's head came up from where it had been resting on his hands.

"Really? You could?" Aang asked, suddenly very perky. _If I could just find a nest when we stop, I cou—_ Katara suddenly gave him a pointed look.

"Aang," She said sternly, although she looked vaguely amused. "It's just a figure of speech."

"I think you know me too well," Aang grumbled good-naturedly, a smile in his eyes as he looked at her. Sokka glanced over his shoulder from his place at the reins when he heard Katara suddenly start laughing quietly.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

They had reached the little Earth Kingdom town later then Jet would have liked, but the freedom fighter still thought he was on schedule. Pulling his rhino up outside of the town gate, Jet had to take an extra moment to calm the creature enough to get off. He hated the rhinos, but he was picking up on how to ride one quickly.

"Since you insist on keeping close," Jet said to Makoto as he stood next to him while everyone dismounted, "Just make sure to only have a small number of your men follow me discreetly." Makoto didn't look happy, but seeing as how Jet was allowing someone to follow, the lieutenant had no real logical objection and no choice but to yield to the compromise.

While three of Makoto's men stayed behind to watch the komodo rhinos, Jet slipped in-between the groups of firebenders. Before entering though, Jet spotted the mouth grass that he favored and he quickly picked a strand and put it in his mouth. A smile flitting across his lips at the familiar touch, Jet started to stroll through the town. The firebenders were walking around buying more supplies along with putting the locals on edge just by their presence.

Jet managed to blend into the crowd easily, since he had his old clothes washed and mended and because of the fact that there were already a lot of strange travelers present. Jet walked through the market reasoning that the only reason Aang might have stopped here was for supplies or directions. In a market it was easier to talk to people then cornering them in their homes. Jet paused by a merchant cart full of large pink apples and his mouth watered.

"One apple please," He said, flipping the ugly blond girl behind the cart a coin. She smiled at him in a way that pulled her face into a shape that emphasized her unsightly nose, her murky green eyes dancing while Jet took his time in picking out an apple.

"Are you a stranger to these parts?" The blonde asked her voice soft and curious. Jet glanced up and met her eyes, observing how the girl was studying him.

Quickly giving her a charming smile and hiding his revulsion, Jet nodded. "Yes. I was just passing through." This apple looked good, Jet decided, picking one up. He noticed that there were two streets in the middle of being cleaned.

"Would you mind me asking what happened here?" Jet asked the girl, eyeing the mess.

The girl's freckled face soured. "Not at all sir. The Avatar had set a poisonous creature lose to kill us. He and his girlfriend tore up the street trying to get the little mongrel. My Uncle and I lost several valuable goods." The girl, who couldn't be more then fourteen, found that talking to this handsome fellow was very pleasant since the young man seemed to hang on her every word, something no other boy had ever done.

Indeed, Jet couldn't believe his luck and he carefully prodded the girl to see if she had more information.

"That's terrible. I'm so sorry that you lost so much money." The girl had looked angry while she explained but now she appeared mollified by Jet's concerned face.

"My name is Jet," Jet said by ways of introduction.

"Liang," the redhead said, reaching her hand over the apples to shake Jet's, only to giggle and blush when the freedom fighter took it gently while rubbing his thumb over the back her hand.

"It's a pleasure," Jet murmured while the girl continued to redden, "Liang, I could use your help."

"Of course," Liang said immediately, looking eager to please. _Too easy, _Jet thought in amusement.

"Since you run this apple cart, I thought you might have seen these two." Jet held up a scroll with Katara and Sokka's likenesses on them. He had drawn them himself and they were dead ringers in his opinion. Liang peered at them for a second before she pointed to Sokka.

"Oh, yes I saw him only a couple days ago. He asked for directions and despite me warning him he went over the mountains." The blonde glanced up at the towering peaks. "I don't think he survived the storm."

Jet eyed the mountains for a moment before turning back to the girl.

"Liang, is it possible to cross those mountains on foot?" The girl positively blanched, looking horrified.

"Oh, but I wouldn't you mustn't—" She abruptly cut off as Jet leaned close to her face, inches away from her, a cocky smirk on his face while the teenage girl stared at him.

"…if you get a guide and the proper gear you could make it over the mountains in four or five days," She amended, speaking softly. Jet leaned back, biting into the apple and savoring the flavor. It was the first bite of fruit he had had in weeks.

"Delicious," He pronounced when Liang gazed at him hopefully. _If we went on foot we'll have to leave two of the men behind to guard the komodo rhinos,_ Jet reasoned to himself. _But we need transportation once we're over the mountains…_

"What land is over the mountains?" He inquired after swallowing.

"The badlands. You can carry light weight canoes if you want to travel down the river."

"Do you know where I could get pack animals?"

"Of course," Liang said quickly before suddenly turning shy. "Um…would you like…to maybe have some lunch with me before I fetch them for you?"

Jet smiled. "I'd love too." While the village girl beamed, Jet told himself that he could have the firebenders round everything up they'd need. He'd eat the picnic the girl had brought up from behind her cart, see if he could get any other info from her, and then he'd be finished. With luck they'd leave tomorrow morning.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

"What is wrong with this place?" Sokka wailed unhappily, rubbing the sides of his coat vigorously.

"I don't know," Katara said, completely baffled. She put up her hood as the high wind knocked her braid against her cheek. Aang looked up at the grey sky.

"This place is as bad as the mountains." He muttered moodily as he shivered. He had a blanket wrapped around him and he was half buried in Appa's fur, but he was still chilled. Suddenly the biting cold wind picked up, rattling the sticks by the campfire and the fire itself was being blown at an almost horizontal angle and was in danger of going out.

"At least we don't need to worry about getting sunburned," Katara said weakly. Sokka glared at her balefully while Aang stood up stiffly.

"We should probably go find something to eat Sokka." Aang said while he stomped his feet to get his blood moving. Sighing, Sokka stood up and grabbed his club and a flask of water.

"What the—?" He muttered shaking the skin. The faintest sound of water sloshing around reached his ears. "Katara I thought you filled this!" Sokka exclaimed, frowning. Aang jumped up and down in an effort to stay warm, while he watched Sokka showing the signs of freaking out. Lately the weather had been affecting him…

"I did!" Katara said indignantly, eyes narrowed in a half-hearted glare.

"Yeah right," Sokka scoffed while unscrewing the cap to the skin to peer into it. When Sokka looked in, his mouth dropped open in disbelief.

"It's frozen." Sokka said flatly. Katara and Aang exchanged glances.

"I think I liked this place better when it was _hot_," Sokka said bitterly as he stomped away, clutching his club with Aang hurrying after him.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

_I hate these damn mountains! _Jet jerked angrily on the lead of one of the pack animals, a large deer like creature with a long neck and tail with antlers. The beast snorted huffily and grudgingly picked up her pace in the deep snow, holding her head up high despite the canoe and baggage strapped to her back.

Makoto and his men had no problem with the cold, seemingly able to keep warm because of their firebending.

Jet and the guide, a native of medium height with bushy hair and brown skin, had more trouble. Jet had never seen snow before, having lived in the warmer reigns of the Earth Kingdom, but he officially hated it now. It got into everything and then melted, no matter the assurances that his jacket and borrowed boots were "waterproof." They had made slow but steady headway since yesterday up the mountain, and they were almost to the high pass. It was late afternoon and the temperature was slowly beginning to drop.

"How much longer until we reach the pass?" He shouted up the guide. He was at the front of the group, while Jet was near the end due to being unable to melt snow drifts that would be difficult to walk in.

"Five, six hours!" The guide called back, barely understandable with his warbled speech.

Jet couldn't help but groan. They had been marching all day with only a quick stop for lunch. He was the one who insisted on the pace, it was true, but it didn't mean he had to be happy abut trudging through the snow.

"I hate snow," Jet muttered to himself. "I can't wait until we reach the badlands and get out of this shitty place." The youngest soldier of the party, a man of twenty-eight, overheard him. Smirking, he turned his head towards Jet as he passed the teenager.

"I heard the badlands are very hot," He called out mockingly to Jet. "You can thaw out once we reach there."

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

"I feel like an icicle."

"Be quiet and go to sleep Sokka, _please._" Katara groaned through her sleeping bag, resolutely keeping her eyes shut from the light of the moon. It was night and very cold out so they were all three sleeping side by side and close to the fire in an effort to keep warm. Appa was lying close enough for his body heat to provide some comfort, and Momo was wedged with Katara between the two boys, so Katara at last found herself warm.

She had had a good supper and her body was finally clean for the first time in a week or so. It was a good thing they had all taken baths today, Katara decided as she sniffed the air around her, picking up the clean boy smells. Katara could have easily been fast asleep right now if it wasn't for Sokka's incessant complaining about the cold. Aang for the most part was quiet, although Katara could feel him shivering through her sleeping bag and the mounds of blankets covering him.

"Sokka, Katara's right," She heard Aang say wearily in response to her earlier order; he sounded exhausted.

"Fine, when you find my frozen carcass in the morning be sure you don't bury me without my boomerang and my club." Sokka snarled while rolling on his side, although he made sure he was still touching Katara so that he could share her body heat.

Making a sound between an exasperated groan and a sigh, Katara rolled from her back over onto her side to get away from Sokka. What she hadn't counted on, was just how close she really was to the two boys.

Because when she turned over, she found Aang on his side too, his face incredibly close to hers. Aang's eyes were huge and startled, locked on her face, then flickering down and then up while his cheeks blushed hard enough for it to be noticeable over his sunburn. They stayed like that for a few breathless seconds before at the same time snapping away and rolling onto their backs, avoiding the other person's eyes. Her mortification deepened the still present flush on her cheeks.

Suddenly a roar tore through the night, the sound of a hungry predator hunting for its meal. Jumping, Katara squealed and grabbed Aang and Sokka's arms at the same time they yelped and grabbed hers. Braving the icy wind, all three of them poked their heads out of their warm blankets and looked around them fearfully.

Appa had jerked awake at the howl and so had Momo, who had immediately flown in-between Aang's covers to hide in the airbender's poncho. Lifting his head, Appa cut loose a roar of his own, silencing even the insects chirping in the canyon grass. Snuffling contentedly to himself, the bison went back to sleep, unmoved by the shocked stares by the three humans sleeping by him.

Katara released Aang and Sokka and burrowed further down into her sleeping bag, muttering about why it had to be so difficult to get a good night's sleep. Katara had almost fallen asleep when Sokka's leg started kicking her as he snored. Grimacing, Katara kicked him back hard enough to make him wake up and then he proceeded to grumble at her.

_This is gonna be a long night. _

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Jet was in his tent, wrapped up in his sleeping bag and hat, finally somewhat warm. But despite how tired he was, sleep evaded him. His face was vacant as his eyes bored unseeingly into the side of his tent.

The teenager was wrapped up in his thoughts; in his memories of the day of his capture.

0*0*0

_Fuming silently to himself, Jet watched as Appa faded into the distance. The ice covering his body and sealing him to the tree was chilling him, despite the warm wind on his face. As he waited for his freedom fighters to return (he had wasted no time in signaling them that he needed help; the Fire Nation soldiers were probably already organizing search parties to look for him) Jet's lips twisted into a silent snarl. Things had gone so horribly wrong. All his carefully laid out plans…wasted. And it was all Sokka's fault. Jet paused. Well, maybe it wasn't all Sokka's fault; Aang and Katara had also failed to see the bigger picture. And then Katara had frozen him to this stupid tree…_

_Suddenly a thought occurred to Jet, making his head snap up and his eyes flash. How had Sokka escaped from Pipsqueak and Smellerbee? Those idiots! They had let Sokka escape and now look at what happened! _

_Jet glared at the insect buzzing around his face. Smellerbee and Pipsqueak would be disciplined for letting a prisoner escape, but for now, he just had to focus on getting everyone back together at the tree house before the Fire Nation found them. _

_I need time to regroup and form new plans, Jet thought bitterly. I won't give up on freeing this valley, but for now…we just need to lay low. _

_ Knowing he was being watched Jet looked up and met Longshot's' dark eyes. _

_Jet's head shot up and his face broke out into a relieved smile. "Longshot! What took you so long?" _

_An apology was in the archers eyes. Longshot nodded over his shoulder at Smellerbee and Pipsqueak, who had emerged from the foliage along with Sneers and the Duke, guilty looks on their faces. _

_Few people would have been able to read Longshot's expression, but Jet gleaned information more quickly than Smellerbee and Pipsqueak would have liked. _

_Jet stared at Longshot. "Rescued?" Smellerbee and Pipsqueak flinched at the darkly unhappy eyes flashing at them. "What does he mean __**rescued?"**_

_Smellerbee fidgeted. "Uh…" She nudged Pipsqueak in the ribs. The giant didn't look happy, but he started to explain anyway. _

"_Sokka tried to escape and while we were chasing him, he…he led us over Fire Nation traps and we got caught in them." Pipsqueak looked extremely uneasy telling his leader about how and why they had failed. Jet looked livid as he stared at them wordlessly, his silence more frightening then if he had started screaming at them. _

"_We will talk about this later," He assured them flatly before returning his gaze to Longshot where it lost its fierceness. _

"_I need you to get me off of this tree before the soldiers find us," Jet said urgently, pushing thoughts of his freedom fighters and his own failings out of his mind. Longshot started picking at the ice along with Smellerbee, Sneers and Pipsqueak, but the Duke looked confused. _

"_Jet, why are you frozen to the tree?" He asked curiously, too young to realize that this probably wasn't the best question to ask at the moment. But Jet had always had something of a soft spot for the boy so he didn't lash out at him. _

"_That doesn't matter right now, Duke." He said instead. The silence that followed was filled by the slow, laborious chipping of the ice; Jet regained his composure, quickly becoming the leader his men were used to seeing. _

_They all stayed silent, each of them already nervous enough with the noise their weapons made against the ice but determined to free their leader. But in her wrath, Katara had made sure that the ice was thick and the going was extremely slow despite four people working on it with sharp weapons. _

_Jet's left shoulder was free and the freedom fighter wiggled it, rubbing it against the bark of the tree to get some feeling back in it. Suddenly a new noise broke through sounds of the forest. _

_Everyone froze, looking at each other with wide eyes. It was the sound of jingling armor, heavy boots crashing through the undergrowth and the angry muttering of rough voices that were usually associated with the Fire Nation. _

_And they were muttering about freedom fighters and looking for a strange noise. _

_His heart beating wildly, Jet let out a soft hiss. His mind started racing over possible scenarios, concern for his freedom fighters overruling his fervent desire to not be taken captive. They were the closest thing to a family to him; plus, if they were caught, they might be forced to give away where the tree house was and then the valley would be defenseless. All this and more ran in Jet's head and he looked eyes with his men, who hadn't moved in their indecision and hadn't made a sound in the hope of remaining undetected._

"_Listen to me," He whispered, the intensity of his voice drawing them in. "You have to leave me here and hide in the trees. If you can take them, attack but if not you need to regroup and rescue me later." He shook his head as all four of them opened their mouths to protest. "No. You can't get captured or there's no hope for any of us. If you can't rescue me then I don't want you fighting a doomed battle; I can escape myself. It'll take time so if you can't Longshot and Smellerbee are in charge." They nodded solemnly, swallowing hard as the firebenders drew closer. Jet chose those two because Longshot would stop Smellerbee from making any rash decisions and Smellerbee wouldn't let Longshot be too conservative. They were two of the closest people to him. Jet finished his instructions whispering rapidly. "I'll be back, don't worry. If I'm taken two of you follow and the other two go back and alert the tree house. Understand?" They all nodded. The Duke's wide, frightened eyes were locked on Jet's face. _

"_Jet…" The boy's voice shook. "What if you don't come back?" _

"_I will," Jet said immediately, his voice firm enough to convince everyone. "Just listen to what I said! Now hide!" The Fire Nation was almost upon them. Without a word or sound the freedom fighters fled into the trees just as the firebenders stepped into the clearing. _

0*0*0

Jet slowly came out of his half-asleep daze and at last he registered what he was looking at. Blinking, Jet became more aware of his surroundings and turned onto his back, listening to the wind moan.

When he had given those instructions to his men, he had thought that they would be able to help rescue him. In hindsight, his error was blatantly dumb, so stupidly obvious. The Fire Nation soldiers wouldn't have kept him within easy reach of his men. Jet had been right; there _were_ too many firebenders.

Even though the town had just been flooded, their prison was elevated from the rest of the buildings and they didn't care if there was still enough water in it to make a person miserable. Jet had spent most of the night seething since he had found out that the reason the firebenders had found him and his freedom fighters so quickly was because of the tip Sokka gave him. The hatred for the boy that appeared that day had continued to deepen.

In the middle of the night the firebenders, aware that the freedom fighters would practically stop at nothing to rescue their leader, sent Jet away with a large escort. A diversion was created to distract the freedom fighters and so Jet had been taken from the forest. Despite managing to escape three times, Jet was always re-captured. Jet's eyes darkened as he remembered how they had nearly entirely withdrawn his food and water and chained him in irons. The journey had been made even longer since the nearest Fire Nation fortress had to be across the Great Divide. For some unknown reason, the canyon guide had disappeared and so they had had to travel _around _the divide_._

And then, while he was still weak from lack of food, they had delivered him to Captain Lazar who had wasted no time in interrogating him... Jet's thoughts had been getting him worked up emotionally, but physically his body needed rest. Jet's thoughts trailed off as his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^*

It was their third day of traveling the mountains, and they had reached the high pass. Jet had made it up at the front of the group with the guide, wanting to stay away from the firebenders. He was still leading his obstinate pack animal, who seemed to want to lie down and roll in the snow at the most random times. Suddenly Jet picked up a woody, bitter stench that he knew all too well.

It was smoke.

"Do you see that?" Jet asked the guide walking next to him, pointing up in the sky at a long thin trail of smoke.

"Yes, it looks like a cabin fire," the guide said flatly, his weathered face showing no emotion at all. "Maybe it's the mountain hermit."

"Who would want to live up here?" Jet said in disgust as he glared at the snowy rocks surrounding him. The native shrugged as best as he could with the pack on his shoulders.

Jet's eyes flickered as his thoughts began to race. Making up his mind, Jet surged ahead of the guide and walked towards the smoke, which was only slightly off the path.

He paused when a fireball shot across his intended passage across the snow. Forcing his hands to not retrieve his swords even though they were straying towards the handles, Jet turned around to see that Makoto and his firebenders were nearly floundering in their haste to catch up to him, everyone's shouting voice going over to top of each other.

"I'm going to go investigate the smoke!" He screamed over the roar of everyone's voices, effectively shutting them up. "You'll follow me, but I want to go alone as to not rouse suspicion." Giving Makoto a hard look, Jet turned and stomped away before the lieutenant had a chance to yell at him. Walking around a sharp turn while clutching the cloak the wind seemed to want to rip away, Jet stopped in his tracks as he caught sight of the tiny cabin with smoke coming out of a half-demolished chimney.

_I wonder how that happened,_ Jet thought as he stared at the chimney before noticing the barn close by. Yes, it was probably a hermit if he had animals to live off of. It also meant that Jet could get shelter from the harsh wind and snow, and probably some food as well if he played his cards right.

And who knows…maybe Aang had stopped here to wait out the blizzard over a week ago.

Jet made no attempt to veil his foul mood as he stomped up to the cabin as best as he could through the snow drifts. But once he reached the cabin door, he paused and took a deep, calming breath, his face going neutral before he plastered on a look of misery. It wasn't hard to do; he really did feel wretched. Bending over, Jet scooped up snow in his gloved hand and then dribbled it over his already snow covered hair and shoulders. That done, Jet slouched his shoulders, bowed his head, and loosened his grip on the overlarge cloak he was wearing so that it nearly fell off his shoulders. Shivering, Jet lifted his right hand and knocked feebly on the heavy oak door.

After a couple moments the door was opened by a short man who barely came up to Jet's chin. His wild grey hair stuck out comically from under the cap on his head. At first Jet didn't notice the man's bright blue eyes, because he was startled by the sight of what appeared to be thick, grey caterpillars across the man's forehead.

"Yes?" The man grunted when Jet couldn't stop staring in mild shock at the man's appearance. "You look half-frozen boy. Come inside and warm up by the fire while I get you some hot tea."

Nodding, trying his best to look pitiful, Jet walked through the door after the man turned around to get the tea started, leaving Jet to flash a smirk to the hiding firebenders before closing the door.

"My name is Raidon," the hermit said conversationally as he poured hot liquid into a cup for Jet. "Who are you and what brings you so far up the mountain alone?"

Jet stalled answering by taking the offered cup and then sipping from it, sitting on the edge of the only bed in the room. Taking the time for his eyes to discreetly search the area over the rim of his cup, Jet's heart beat quickened when he caught sight of the two makeshift beds by the far wall. He must have interrupted Raidon from putting those away, judging by the state of the blankets and pillows. Lowering the cup, Jet looked straight into the hermit's curious eyes.

"My name is Jet. I'm traveling over the mountains to return to my family. My guide has abandoned me and left me wandering with no food or drink. If I can just make it these last miles, I only have to journey to the edge of the Miya forest to meet up with my family." Believing he had delivered it well, Jet was vaguely annoyed when Raidon merely nodded, a wary glint deep in his eyes. Taking another deliberate sip, Jet thought quickly.

"Where are the children and missus?" He asked casually while Raidon sat on the chair opposite the bed.

Raidon smiled wryly. "I'm a hermit. There are none." He said simply. Jet nodded with an apologetic smile on his face.

"I'm sorry; forgive me for my rudeness. I had just assumed there were more people living here then you judging by the beds." All sparkle vanished from Raidon's expressive eyes, and his furry eyebrows lowered.

"As I've already said, I am the only one who lives here." The man sounded defensive, and shifted in his seat, beginning to eye the teenager in front of him with renewed suspicion. Jet only nodded again, taking another drink of tea, enjoying the rush of warmth despite himself.

"If you would be willing to help me out, I'm looking for someone," Jet began carefully, noting the way the man stiffened at his words and how his eyes shifted off to the side nervously. "I was supposed to meet my cousin and his sister down in the village but I was delayed by Fire Nation. The innkeeper told me that they had gone ahead of me to outrun the snow storm. I haven't managed to catch up with them ever since and I'm extremely worried about them." Jet was actually able to command tears to rush into his eyes, playing the role of a concerned and scared family member to perfection.

Raidon said nothing, but Jet could tell he was wavering. Leaning forward, Jet's face became desperate and yet somehow full of hope.

"Please…" Jet intentionally had his voice crack. "Are they the ones who used those beds?"

"I…did have a girl and boy staying with me yesterday," Raidon confessed rather reluctantly, still eyeing the teen and choosing his words carefully.

"Could you please tell me what they look like?" Jet pleaded. "It might be Sokka and Katara." Jet watched in hidden delight as the hermit visibly relaxed even more, his features softening.

"Are…your cousins from the water tribe?" Raidon asked cautiously. Jet nodded, the hope on his face no longer acted.

"A lad around fifteen years of age and his younger sister were here during the storm. They left yesterday." Jet's face, previously overloaded with fake emotion, dropped so abruptly into his usual stoic mask that it startled Raidon. Jet chuckled, the sound visibly making the old man wince.

"Thank you," Jet said sarcastically, his voice full of scorn. Almost as fast as Jet, the friendly look on Raidon's face disappeared into confusion, fear, and anger. The hermit wore his emotions too plainly for Jet's liking.

"What is go—" A loud, demanding knock on the door cut off Raidon's sentence as the hermit leapt to his feet. Whirling around, the hermit looked at the door and then at Jet, inklings of understanding starting to appear in his face.

"I think you should answer that," Jet said smugly, setting his cup on the bedside table and leaning back against the brick fireplace. "You probably don't want to force them to burn down your door." As Raidon blanched, the person knocking at the door started pounding harder.

"Open up!" A male's voice roared, Jet recognizing it as Makoto's favorite soldier, Shen.

Walking quickly, obviously angry and at the same time scared, Raidon wretched the door open so violently that Shen stumbled and nearly fell at the old man's feet. Upon seeing the armored firebenders on his doorstep, Raidon gasped and then turned around to face Jet, understanding finally and with no small amount of fear.

"What do you really want?" Raidon snapped as Jet leisurely stood up, spilling snow on the carpet. "I have nothing of any value to you!"

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that," Jet said calmly, waving aside the firebender's crowding the man before unsheathing his T-Hook swords. Raidon stood his ground and glared defiantly as Jet approached menacingly. Raidon, nearly backed into the firebenders behind him, had no where to go when Jet unsheathed the points of his swords and pointed one at his heart.

"Where were Sokka and Katara going?" Jet demanded, shoving his sword forward enough to pierce through the man's jerkin and into his flesh.

Raidon hesitated before openly sneering at Jet. "If you were truly going to a family reunion, you would know!" Jet drew a trickle of blood to get the hermits attention. Raidon's eyes widened slightly and he stiffened under the swords cold bite.

"Don't make me ask you again," Jet leaned forward while the firebenders pressed around him, forming fire daggers in their clenched fists. Raidon turned white, but stayed stubbornly silent.

"Very well then," Jet said eventually, sheathing his swords the complete confusion of those around him. "You don't want to talk you can be burned to death, slowly and agonizingly in reward for your silence." Jet took in the man's horrified face before turning to the soldiers nearest to him.

"Burn him."

Grinning widely, Shen and Lok raised their fists in unison as they began to glow an eerie red. Aiming for Raidon, with Jet watching dispassionately from the side, they were about to strike.

"WAIT!" Raidon shrieked at the last second, sagging in the grip the two soldiers behind him had secured him in. "I'll tell you. Just leave me alone!"

"Yes?" Jet enquired coldly after motioning for the firebenders to stop.

"They were planning to travel over the badlands and then through the Miya Forest," the hermit intoned, defeat written clearly in the slump of his shoulders. Letting go, the firebenders stepped back out into the snow while the hermit dropped to his knees, hugging himself and trembling violently.

"Thank you for your time," Jet sneered as he shoved past the old man. Slamming the door shut, the firebenders and Jet stared at each other blankly while the guide nervously approached with the pack animals. Jet locked gazes with Makoto's single brown eye.

"We're getting close."

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

"We're getting closer to the forest," Sokka commented. "Why don't we stay there for a couple days once we get there?"

"Why?" Katara asked as she shaded her face from the sun with her homemade hat.

Sokka shrugged. "I just thought that we could use a short break after the ordeal in the mountains and then the freaky weather in this place." Sokka glanced around him at the scenery, as if expecting the weather to suddenly change at his words.

"I think it sounds like a good idea," Aang said from atop of Appa, looking over his shoulder so that they could see his sunburned cheeks. "Zuko isn't following us closely, we could spare a few days in one location." Aang paused, a suspicious look crossing his face. "…At least, we haven't seen him since the abbey with the sisters." Then the suspicion left this face, and his face became earnest. "Plus I think he'd have a hard time getting his boat around the mountains." Katara hesitated when both Sokka, Aang and even Momo it seemed, pierced her with hopeful looks.

"Okay," She said after a long pause, smiling at the reactions her answer received. "I guess a couple days wouldn't hurt."

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

"What is that?"

Jet glanced sharply at the young firebender walking next to him, the same one who had told him he could thaw out in the badlands. A thoughtful frown was on the firebenders face when he muttered that, his eyes fixed on something in the far distance.

"What is it?" Jet demanded trying to see whatever it was the firebender saw. "What do you see?" Curious as to what they were saying after the long silence, heads turned and looked back at them while Jet and the firebender stopped.

"I-I'm not entirely sure." The soldier looked flummoxed. "Maybe it's just a cloud?"

But by this time Jet had caught sight of what that "cloud" really was as the wind blew several real clouds out of their way. Since they were half-way down the slope of the Ice Mountains, the company had an almost complete view of the badlands below them and the forest far ahead.

"That is no cloud," Jet said, a brief flicker of dark joy passing across his face. "That's a bison." By now everyone was looking and a great exclamation of shouts erupted once they saw the flying bison themselves.

"Pick up the pace!" Jet shouted, jogging past the standing soldiers and going ahead. "We've spotted the Avatar!"

**Five hours later: **

Jet joined the two firebenders struggling to push a canoe into the water. The watercraft grated against the pebbly beach before sliding into the cold, clear water of the river. Quickly leaping into the bow before it got too far out into the river, Jet picked up an oar. With how fast this river ran, they could reach the edge of the Miya forest by late afternoon tomorrow if they traveled all night with only a few rest stops. And if that's what it took to make up for lost ground, Jet was going to do it.

Once they had caught up with the Avatar, Jet was going to allow Makoto's firebenders a short time to rest; he needed everyone well rested and on their toes in order to stand a chance of capturing Katara.

His canoe being the foremost on the river, Jet looked behind him and saw to his satisfaction that all the river canoes were in the water. The mountain guide and the pack animals would stay in a tent awaiting their return. Jet had made sure that the man had enough money to tempt him to keep him from running. Looking ahead, Jet's eyes narrowed slightly as he saw Appa descend into the farthest reaches of the badlands.

He was closing in on the Avatar and the fools didn't even know it.

A devilish smile crossed Jet's face.


	5. Return

This is one of my longer chapters. I added more to the whole Jet confronting Katara and Sokka, along with a shorter and more meaningful lead up to the climax. (Which is why this chapter is so long! I had more detail to add) I don't want to tell you everything I did, since I want this to be a surprise. But let me assure you that this is one of the chapters that have changed the most.

:

Chapter Four

_It feels good to be back in a forest_; Jet had thought hours ago when he and his group had reached the Miya. While they were resting, he had snuck off to go spy on Aang's camp, leaving a note pierced through Makoto's tent flap. Here, Jet was in his element. The trees in his forest similar to ones here, so he managed to pass from tree to tree with such stealth that even when he passed by the birds in the branches they didn't flee.

He quickly approached the trees surrounding the Avatar's campsite and Jet slowed his movements so the only sound was the soft rustling of leaves that was easily covered by the wind. Jumping to his last tree with the aid of his T-Hook Swords, he crouched and then sheathed his swords to free up his hands.

Climbing high into the denser parts of the foliage, Jet peered through a small opening in the leaves down to the campsite where two people were sitting. Jet's eyes bored into the back of Katara's head as she finished cooking a meager meal. This was the first time he had seen her since her betrayal. She was still as pretty as he remembered, Jet admitted grudgingly to himself as Katara turned around to look at the second person in the camp, giving him a plain view of her face.

"Sokka, do you want any nuts with your lunch?" Katara asked him while eyeing a small brown pouch at her feet.

"No!" Jet heard Sokka exclaim, sounding revolted.

_Sokka._

With no firebenders around, Jet didn't pay much attention to the emotions flying across his face when he caught sight of the traitor. He had a score to settle with that imbecile. In his opinion, Sokka was nearly worse then a firebender, because he had betrayed the world to side with Fire Nation.

No longer wanting to watch Katara huffily sort out the bad nuts, Jet's gaze stayed on the young wanna-be warrior. Sokka was lying in the shade of a tree, arms behind his head while his legs sprawled out like he didn't have a care in the world. He appeared to be dozing, and Jet noticed with dark amusement that Sokka looked like he was perpetually blushing he was sunburned so badly. Aang wasn't in the camp, but both Appa and Momo were, Appa looking grateful for a rest and Momo hovering around Katara while trying to snag a few nuts.

Jet had been watching Sokka so intently that he forgot to look away for short periods of time as to not alert people to his presence. Abruptly Sokka sat up and his sharp navy blue eyes scanned the treetops quickly. Mentally cursing himself for his carelessness, Jet ducked in time to avoid Sokka's detection. Hanging upside down a branch in a giant tree wasn't very comfortable.

"Food's ready," He heard Katara call. As soon as Jet heard Sokka move towards Katara's voice he slowly straightened and resumed his watching although he was now very wary as to how long he watch an individual. Jet began listening to their conversation intently incase anything important came up.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

"Is something wrong Sokka?" Katara asked when he noticed Sokka wasn't eating with his usual gusto. Sokka hesitated briefly before shrugging.

"No." Katara stared at him, curious and confused as Sokka's eyes never stopped scanning the tree tops with a glare while he slowly continued eating. Picking up her jerky, Katara began to methodically chew as she contemplated Sokka's strange behavior. Her brother looked so tense that Katara suspected that if someone so much as tapped him on the shoulder he would punch them before realizing who it was. When Sokka paused eating again and walked away to grab his club, Katara began to feel edgy herself, catching herself looking around her surroundings warily.

"Where's Aang?"

Katara jumped at Sokka's sudden question, glaring at her bother as he smirked because he had startled her. But Katara quickly stopped as she considered Sokka's question. Glancing around the camp, Katara realized that Aang hadn't come when she had called and immediately got to her feet.

"I'm not sure," Katara said, picking up her water flask and Aang's plate, "I think he was water bending by that pond you found earlier."

"Yeah, ok! I'll be fine!" Sokka shouted after her retreating form, sounding insulted. "Not that you care since you're leaving me all by myself!" Something screeched indignantly by his ear and Sokka winced. "All by myself with you two, that is…" He grumbled, shooting a sour look at the lemur on his shoulder at the bison watching him. Katara smiled slightly as she watched him before turning back and resuming her walk.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Jet frowned as Katara left, unsure of what to do. Should he follow her and therefore end up watching Aang as well? Or stay here and watch Sokka pick his teeth?

In his debating, Jet had carelessly lifted a hand and gripped onto a thin branch nearby and ended up putting too much weight on it. It snapped. The sound as loud as a war cry in the silence. Jet cringed and, heart beating erratically, watched to see if Sokka noticed.

He didn't.

Jet was surprised for a moment, since he had seen how increasingly agitated the boy had become, but then he reminded himself of how inept Sokka was at listening and traveling in a forest. _But then when is he ever competent? _Jet thought scornfully.

All the while Jet had focused his thoughts on Sokka and thought himself safe from the boy's lack of response, he didn't realize that the lemur had stiffened at the sound before silently creeping into the foliage and up the tree Jet was hiding in.

Deciding to stay and watch Sokka until Aang and Katara returned, Jet settled himself down for a wait, forcing his tense body to relax so his muscles wouldn't start cramping.

Jet nearly fell out of the tree in his shock when the lemur suddenly dropped down in front of his face, hanging upside down off of a tree branch, blinking its round green eyes at him. Jet almost screamed, but instead grunted like someone had hit him in the gut with club.

The freedom fighter went statue still, not moving a muscle and barely blinking an eye. If this lemur drew attention to him, he would either be discovered too soon, or disappear and most likely cause Sokka to move camp. So Jet stayed absolutely still, staring steely eyed at the lemur who stared back.

Sweat trickled down his forehead and in his eyes but Jet didn't dare wipe it away. The lemur had to make the first move. No one moved, never looking away as the noise Sokka made in the camp went in one ear and out the other. The Avatar's lemur crept closer to Jets face, stopping inches away and sniffed delicately. Jet held his breath.

And then the lemur attacked him.

Hissing the lemur clung to Jet's head and yanked on his hair mercilessly, yowling into his ears and scratching his face. Bright red from anger, Jet wouldn't settle for anything less than killing the creature when he heard Sokka come running, yelling for the creature in concern. And to top it all off, the lemur tore up his mouth grass!  
Outraged, Jet cursed at the lemur, but not so loud that Sokka would hear him. Yanking the creature part-way off his face Jet managed to unsheathe a T-Hook sword with one hand while keeping the lemur away from it.

"Hah!" Jet swung at the creature, not having the space or balance to unsheathe the sword points (he was nearly falling off the branch already!) and hit the lemur hard on the head. Stunned, the animal went limp. But the scuffle had been anything but quiet and Sokka was only a couple trees away from Jet's position.

Deciding he didn't have time to kill the lemur, Jet simply dropped it and then fled through the tree tops with the aid of his swords, going even faster as he heard Aang's voice cry out in outrage a couple moments later. Cringing, Jet doubled his speed, going so fast that he appeared a blur in his hurry to put ground between him and the irate Avatar.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

The path to the pond was longer than Katara had originally thought.

_Aang shouldn't stray so far from camp, _Katara thought as she continued to weave through the trees and undergrowth, following the trail of Aang and Sokka's footprints.

More than once Katara had nearly dropped Aang's plate of food, and by the time she stumbled into a meadow, she was panting from the heat and strain of balancing the plate.

A small pond was close to the center of the meadow, and Aang was laying on his stomach, lazily directing the water in the pond with one hand, his legs waving back and forth in the air. Katara hesitated a moment before making her presence known, enjoying the sight of how relaxed and care free the young avatar looked, a sight that was quickly becoming rarer. An eye brow rose when she noticed the shape of the water Aang was bending.

"Aang?"

Katara was startled by Aang's violent reaction. The airbender leapt to his feet with impressive reflexes and before Katara could react to what was happening a column of water slammed into her, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to stumble backwards and nearly drop the plate of soggy food.

"Aang!" Katara gasped out before the airbender continued the attack. "Aang, it's just me!" Katara bended the water out of her soggy clothes as Aang blushed, rushing over to her.

"Katara, I'm so sorry!" He exclaimed, aghast. "I didn't hurt you did I?" Katara paused from wringing out her braid to smile reassuringly at the dismayed boy standing in front of her.

"Don't worry Aang, I'm just a little wet," She said, ignoring what would definitely become a bruise on her stomach. "Here, I brought you some lunch," Katara handed him the plate, water running off the edge.

"Thanks," Aang said, eyeing the soupy food before lifting a hand and separating enough of the water from the food so that it was edible. Sitting down at the base of a tree, Aang hungrily began to eat while Katara leaned against the tree watching him. Katara noticed he still ate with a slight frown, glancing at her discreetly every now and then.

"Relax," Katara said, grinning when Aang jumped at her voice and looked at her. Smiling sheepishly, Aang quickly finished his apple in silence.

"So how did your practicing go?" Katara asked, remembering Aang's lazy body language before she scared him.

Aang shrugged. "Okay I guess. I got bored after a while so I started to just play with the water." They fell silent again but neither of them felt uncomfortable about the quiet. It was a companionable silence.

"Aang do you ever feel as if you're being watched at camp?" Katara suddenly blurted. She had been growing increasingly uncomfortable and Sokka's influence only strengthened it. Aang paused in mid-bite, considering her question thoughtfully before answering.

"Well, I thought I was just imagining it," Aang admitted. "That's why I left for this pond. But if you're feeling the same way maybe I wasn't." Katara told him about Sokka's behavior back at campsite and Aang looked uneasy.

"Let's see if Sokka thinks we should leave," Aang suggested after swallowing the last bite of his apple. "We wouldn't move very far, but enough that we could lose whatever's watching us." Katara nodded in agreement as Aang stood with his plate in hand.

"Yeah, for all we know we could have a wild animal stalking us," Katara added as she recalled how fidgety Momo had been. Since Appa was bigger than most creatures and could fly to escape, the bison was hardly ever affected by most predators. Katara and Aang continued to small talk as they walked back to camp, Aang occasionally blasting a path through the undergrowth with the aid of his air bending.

Aang and Katara stopped dead in their tracks, cutting off what ever they were about to say to each other. Exchanging quick glances, the pair broke into a run for the camp, heading towards the sound of Sokka shouting Momo's name and the lemur making loud and disturbing noises.

Bursting from the trees, Katara caught sight of Sokka kneeling under a tree, a limp Momo cradled in his arms as he fingered the cut on Momo's head. Katara heard Aang cry out in outrage as he saw Sokka and Momo before sprinting over to her brother, Katara not far behind.

"What happened?" Aang demanded, taking the lemur from Sokka quickly, his eyes darkening at the sight of the cut. Katara came up behind him, relieved to see that the lemur was only stunned, not dead as she had feared.

"I don't know!" Sokka snapped. It was obvious Sokka was frustrated by the glower on his face. "It sounded like Momo was attacking something. Whatever it was, it got away." Sokka glanced up into the tree. "I ran over to see what was happening and then Momo just fell out of the tree." By the time Sokka finished explaining, Katara was determined to leave this campsite today. Uncorking her water skin, Katara quickly healed the lemur's cut while Aang and Sokka watched. Momo stirred after a moment or two, blinking up at the three faces staring down at him. Aang handed Momo to Katara before disappearing up the tree, apparently searching for clues.

"Poor baby," Katara cooed to the lemur, scratching Momo behind the ears in his always itchy spot. Sokka just rolled his eyes and didn't release his club from his grip.

"Find anything Aang?" He yelled up into the trees, straining to catch sight of the twelve year old. Suddenly Aang appeared in front of Sokka, causing the water tribe boy to go pale under his sunburn and leapt backwards into Katara.

"_Geez,_ Aang, you didn't have to do that," He grumbled as Katara shoved him away. Aang's face was serious to the point that both Sokka and Katara stood straighter and looked at him anxiously.

"There are marks like sword gouges high in the tree in some branches," Aang said grimly. "We need to be moving on." Katara nodded; she wanted to leave as well. Sokka didn't put up a fuss either. He stood up and started packing.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Aang stood in darkness.

He could not see. There was no light to guide him in the suffocating blackness of where he was. He could clearly hear the crackle of a large fire, but there was no light to accompany this sound. He had always taken for granted that one would accompany the other, yet it was not so now. The fire was also lacking warmth, for the air around him was cold.

There was another in the room with him. Aang could feel the person's presence and it filled him with fear. Once he became aware of the other person, Aang felt two other familiar presences near, almost flanking him. Turning, Aang waved a hand in front of him; trying desperately to touch the person he knew was there, but he felt nothing. Through means he didn't fully comprehend, Aang knew he was an observer here. An observer without sight, but an observer nevertheless. Whatever happened in this strange realm of darkness, he would be powerless to prevent it. He was only meant to watch.

To listen. To feel.

To know…

The roar of the fire intensified as though it drew near, yet still it could not be seen and still it possessed no warmth. But there was a new sound that also grew. It was voices. And they were familiar. His heart starting to beat rapidly, Aang looked around him, frantic to see. He heard them calling his name; they were in trouble! He had to save them! Opening his mouth Aang tried to call out but he could not be heard over the screams of the two voices.

The fire started to roar; it sounded like it was all around him. The fire mixed with the two voices and it echoed off the walls of wherever he was. Clutching his ears, Aang fell to his knees. He tried to block out the voices and the thunderous roar of fire but they would not be silenced.

And then it stopped.

The fire fell silent.

The voices disappeared.

Fear pricking at his heart, Aragorn lowered his hands and stood. In some ways, this silence was worse than the bedlam. Much worse.

"You've failed."

This voice was different; Aang had never heard it before in his life, but he heard the cruel delight and the malice in it. What did he fail? Aang wondered. His heart continued to pound. It had to be important. What did he fail?!

Suddenly something was thrown into his lap. Aang fell down, and the smell of blood filled his nose while covering his lap as the voice continued to mock him.

His hand shaking, Aang felt what was on him. It was two bodies. A girl. And a boy. Aang could tell the two teenagers were dead. Who were they? Why did he feel as though he knew them? As if answering his demands for sight, the veil over his eyes lifted. Aang saw fire leap up around him, a scorching inferno, the Fire Lord in the center of it all, staring at him, and his laughter chilled Aang's heart.

Aang looked down.

He saw.

He knew.

_He screamed…_

A wordless cry spilt the night air. Aang's eyes flew open and he lurched forward before he stopped screaming, gasping for air. Bile was in his throat and made it hard to breathe.

_Where am I? _He thought in pure panic, looking around him in terror, _where are Katara and Sokka?! _

Twisting around Aang saw them through blurred sight. Without thinking, having still not taken in the fact that it was only a dream, Aang scrambled off of Appa, ignoring the bison concerned snuffling and Momo's excited chirps. Sprinting over to Katara's sleeping bag, Aang barely saw the girl open her eyes in confusion before Aang grabbed her wrist and felt her warmth and the subtle vibration of her pulse.

"Aang?" Katara said, looking scared. "Aang you're white w—" Without waiting for Katara to finish Aang dived over her and tackled Sokka, capturing the boy warriors wrist and searching out the rhythm of his heartbeat in his chest with the other as Sokka yelped and tried to sit up.

Sokka was alive?

They were both alive?

Aang fell back on his seat with an audible thump, staring into nothing, still breathing hard and trembling, sweat beaded on his forehead. _It was __**just a dream?**__ But it felt so __**real**__…_

Sokka bit off whatever he was going to shout when he saw Aang. Aang barely noticed him exchange a glance with Katara before the Water Tribe siblings both got out of their sleeping bags and sat next to him, looking unnerved.

"Aang?" Aang jerked when Katara laid a hand on his shoulder and his eyes shot to her face.

"What's wrong?" Sokka asked quietly, watching Aang's sickly white face intently.

Shivering even though it was a warm night, Aang avoided Katara's eyes, feeling embarrassed. Clearing his throat, Aang took a couple deep breaths before responding.

"Nothing. It was just a dream." Aang managed to say, his voice quiet.

"A nightmare," Sokka muttered under his breath while Katara squeezed Aang's hand reassuringly. Momo, so far having hovered around the group anxiously, crawled up Aang's stomach and peered into the airbender's face, never stopping his constant concerned chirping. A weak smile flickered across Aang's lips as he stared down at the lemur, gratefully petting Momo behind the ears.

Sokka and Katara didn't move from their spots next to him, and Aang was becoming increasingly aware of the warmth of Katara's hand. Fighting down the instinctual embarrassment, Aang stood to his feet with Momo in his hands, Katara standing up with him while Sokka stayed up the ground peering up at them.

"Sorry," Aang mumbled, still embarrassed. Even with how bad his last serious nightmare was he hadn't screamed or gone completely mental like he just did.

"Don't be ridiculous," Katara said her voice slightly stern. "You have nothing to feel sorry for." Aang wasn't sure what to say since he really did feel he should be sorry when Sokka spoke up from where he was gathering every weapon he owned by his pillow.

"Well I accept your apology Aang," Sokka said, ignoring Katara's warning glare, "Because you nearly gave me a heart attack when you tackled me." Aang shrugged, blushing.

"Um, yeah, sorry about that…" He stammered as Momo started to doze in his arms while Katara rekindled the fire.

"Hey, why did you do that anyway?" Sokka asked, pausing digging through the packs and watching Aang. He froze. Sokka looked troubled, but Aang didn't have to tell him why if he didn't want to.

"…I don't want to talk about it," Aang muttered, walking back to Appa who had roused himself and was watching the airbender's every move. A hand enclosed his wrist and Aang paused, glancing back at Katara as the firelight played across her face.

"If you ever want to talk about it, I'd be willing to listen." She smiled at him and despite Aang's conflicting emotions about taking her up on the offer, a tiny thrill raced up and down his spine. Aang smiled back at her, feeling more like himself.

"Thanks." Was all he said but he meant it.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

After returning from his botched attempt of spying on the Avatar, Jet was lectured by Makoto and yelled at and mocked by almost everyone in the camp. Ignoring his now ever-present bodyguard, Jet was eating his breakfast the morning after his incident with the lemur. Makoto had sent two soldiers to watch the camp for when the Avatar left, everyone certain that Aang would move camp. Hearing a commotion, Jet's head snapped up as one of the scouts came tearing through the camp before sliding to a stop in front of Makoto, who was finishing eating.

"Sir, the Avatar is packing up his camp. Ling will rejoin the group before the Avatar leaves." The scout blurted all in one breath, slightly winded from the sprint. Before Makoto could respond, Jet jumped to his feet, startling his bodyguard.

"You heard him!" Jet barked at the nearby firebenders. "Pack up this camp and load the canoes before the Avatar gets a head start!"

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

"Katara!" She glanced at Sokka as she kicked dust over the old fire ring. Sokka had one hand gripping the edge of Appa's saddle, one foot dangling while the other was planted in the bison's furry side.

"Ready?" Katara guessed as much since Aang had finished re-tightening Appa's reins; just in case they became loose after the mountains. Sokka gave a brief nod in her direction before clamoring onto Appa's head with Aang.

Katara ignored Aang and Sokka's small talk, distracted by watching the surrounding area. Sokka and Aang's banter was forced, a façade of normalcy in case it was a person stalking them. Sokka wanted to make sure that nothing important came up in conversation for someone else to overhear.

Katara felt relieved when Appa took to the sky; after the escapade with Momo and the unknown assailant, the forest had ceased to be a haven from the badlands and became oppressive. Feeling the familiar pull of the wind against her clothes and long braid, Katara leaned against the saddle, idly watching Sokka and Aang as they eased into a more relaxed conversation.

The contented smile playing around the edges of her lips vanished as Katara detected what looked like movement on the river. Katara narrowed her eyes to try and see what those black specks were, but before she had more than a glimpse of them, Appa rose higher into the sky. When he came through the heavy clouds, the river was hidden by a thin blanket of white.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Jet strained to keep his eyes on the barely visible bison while paddling down a churning river in the same boat with a firebender who would happily knock him out of the canoe or worse.

"Are you all watching out for the bison?" Jet directed his question to everyone.

Most of the soldiers simply nodded stiffly while glaring, but a couple of them were ruder in their protests. Jet directed his most intimidating glare at the canoe next to him with the firebenders who had said more than just a muttered comment or two. Opening his mouth to say something, Jet was cut off by Makoto, the firebender sitting behind him.

"Enough! Stay focused on your tasks and if I find anyone neglecting theirs I'll make sure you're disciplined." The words may not be the most witty come back Jet had heard, but the lieutenant's tone of voice brooked no argument. Only the rushing of the river interrupted the silence after that, everyone absorbed in watching the bison and at the same time avoiding obstacles in the water. Jet was irritated that Makoto could easily demand such respect, and the fact that these soldiers had to have made a record of making him lose his self control more than once. Eyes trained on his prize, Jet hardened his face into his usual expression, albeit a more severe one than he usually wore in his forest. The time was drawing near and he would be ready for it.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

**Dusk**

Aang had made sure to pick a campsite that wasn't easy to spot at a glance. In a thick cluster of trees, they had set up camp with a huge rock boulder at their backs and thick wood surrounding them everywhere else.

Katara had insisted that they had to stay close to the river for Aang to practice and a water supply. After the fiasco with the Waterbending Scroll, Aang and Katara practiced very move they had learned close to daily since they had no reference other than each other and their own memories.

After the camp had been set up and Aang had convinced Appa and Momo to stay at the campsite, Sokka left to collect firewood and Katara had desperately needed a bathroom break judging by how she sprinted into the trees the instant they landed.

Glancing around, Aang knew Sokka wasn't back from his self-appointed scouting mission—for that was exactly what it was. Why else would a person looking for firewood ignore all the dead branches lying in and surrounding the campsite?

Before leaving, Katara had asked if he would start a campfire; his gaze finally resting on the ready pile of wood in a ring of stones, Aang squatted beside it, his body stiff. He had put off not building it long enough. His face was blank except for his eyes, and they stared at the wood with an intensity that was startling.

_It seems so easy, just light up some fire in my hand and send it into the fire. _Aang thought darkly. _This can't always be such a big deal. _

His problem was that he couldn't do it.

Not after what happened the _last_ time he did it.

Cringing at the memory, feeling the familiar pang of guilt, Aang picked up a piece of flint and began striking Sokka's knife against it, patiently waiting for the sparks to catch the cheat grass on fire and spread the logs.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

**Two Days Later**

Jet calmly watched as Makoto, the lieutenant of his borrowed firebenders turned a shade of red he had never seen before.

"Are you listening to me?" The lieutenant ground out, his fists clenched. Lazily Jet lifted his eyes from sharpening his T-Hooks swords and met the furious man's gaze.

"Yes, I have listened to you try to convince me to stop tracking the Avatar and attack him now," Jet said, purposely making it look like he couldn't care less in his body language and voice.

"And?" Makoto was barely keeping himself under control enough not to shout and draw attention from his troops to his conversation with Jet. "Just what do you plan to do about this present standstill?"

"Nothing, at the present." Jet leisurely drew the whetstone down his blade, thinking of the scout he had sent at dawn without Makoto's knowledge.

"So you plan to keep following him for days," Makoto said scornfully. "I would have expected greater strategy from someone such as yourself." Jet's hand hesitated a moment on his stoke, a barely visible tightening of his lips giving away his growing frustration.

"The timing on this mission is crucial." The curt reply remained empty of anger. "If the attack is launched too later or too early, it'll fail."

"The longer you follow him, the farther you travel from the tower. And you need to be calculating the return trip in those plans of yours if you're going to make your deadline."

Jet set his whetstone to the side and stood up with his swords in hand, posture aggressive and staring coldly at Makoto. "I have everything under control," He said firmly. "I don't need to explain myself to you; I don't take orders from Fire Nation." By the end, he was hissing in the captain's face, his voice low and filled with warning.

Makoto sneered at him. "Oh, but you _do_ take orders from us Jet. Lazar has you trapped and put me in charge of you, not the other way around. I wonder what your comrades would think if they saw that you had sided with the enemy."

Jet remained silent, his face a stoic mask while inside he fought to rein in his temper. Now wasn't the time to lose control, but he would remember this.

"Jet!" Jet turned his head slightly to the side, ignoring Makoto as the scout he had sent approached him.

"The Avatar has stopped and made camp in a valley not far from here. He's not going anywhere," The soldier reported to Jet while Makoto stared. Jet nodded, lost in thought as Makoto understood that Jet had been scheming behind his back and was obviously outraged.

"Hmmm, I see." Jet paused. It seemed perfect, perhaps a little too perfect? When Jet had looked over the area himself he hadn't seen any signs of a trap, but it was always good to be careful. He had learned that the hard way.

"This appears to be our chance." Jet said, pitching his voice to be carried over the camp. "I don't like this situation though. Rally the men and I'll inform you what the entire battle plan is to be." The underling nodded eagerly, ready to see some action after so long before sprinting away. Jet turned to Makoto, who was still staring at him and smirked.

"Just as I said. I have everything under control." Jet said calmly with a trace amount of mockery before walking away to met the other firebenders, his mind busy with the prospect of managing to attack the Avatar, and more importantly his companion, today.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

"Sokka, do you know where Katara is?" Aang asked as he dumped a pile of sticks next to the fire. "She said she would wait here for me." Jet listened intently from his hiding spot in the tree behind Sokka as the Water Tribe boy paused from cleaning his club.

"She left a little while ago saying that she'd warm up while she waited for you." Sokka explained casually, admiring his gleaming weapon.

Aang frowned. "She shouldn't be at the river by herself." Sokka nodded in agreement, appearing annoyed.

"Yeah, I told her to stay but she was worked up for some reason and took Momo as protection." Sokka rolled his eyes at the thought of Momo being protection.

"Alright, I should go catch up with her." Aang said, but he hesitated in leaving. Jet frowned as he continued to watch. Obviously they were cautious in case someone was tracking them. _Too bad for them it's not enough to stop me, _Jet thought arrogantly as Sokka assured Aang that he and Appa would be fine alone.

"I'll be back in a little while!" Aang called over his shoulder while he ran out of sight, a dust trail following in his wake. Jet smiled as Sokka was left alone with only the bison. Jet wanted them to be able to follow him to Lazar's fortress, so the tactic to get rid of the bison was to use fire to scare him off. If the beast proved too loyal to desert Sokka, then Jet had instructed to have them shoot the bison with an arrow but not injure it enough so it couldn't fly.

Makoto had thought that the men could have simply tied the creature down with ropes, but with Appa's size and strength, Jet knew that was next to impossible with how little men he had with him. The others were shadowing Aang and Katara.

Jet glanced left and right at the hidden firebenders and then gave his bird whistle signal. Sokka didn't appear to react, and so far things were going smoothly. Perching on his branch, Jet watched as each soldier dropped to the ground quietly enough to escape detection. But Jet couldn't help but wince at what to him sounded like a horrible racket.

Sokka had his back to them, sitting on a fallen tree as firebenders crept up from behind. The plan was to take the boy with the element of surprise, and if Sokka put up a fight, they would subdue but not kill him. On the opposite side of the camp, out of Sokka's view, the other half of Jet's company snuck up on the sleeping bison.

When the man in the lead was four feet from Sokka, he accidentally stumbled over a stone causing to clatter and lurch forward under the force of the weight of his boot. Jet grit his teeth as Sokka immediately glanced over his shoulder. In the split second he saw the firebender he shouted and leapt away from the log in time to avoid being tackled by the man who had kicked the stone.

"Attack!" Jet shouted, remaining in the trees while the firebenders did the work. Sokka looked stunned at the sound of Jet's voice, but he was efficiently distracted when the firebenders sent streams of fire at the bison as he leapt up in a panic at the pain his burns caused.

"Appa!" Sokka exclaimed, before pulling into a ready fighting stance and hurtling his boomerang into the head of the closet head of the firebenders, knocking the man out.

Immediately ten men flung individual fireballs at the boy warrior. Screaming again, Sokka flung his body flat on the ground and narrowly escaped being burned alive.

Appa was chased from the camp by the firebenders, slamming into several trees in his panic and roaring in confusion before taking off into the air.

At this point two firebenders jumped over the log and aimed their fists, alive with fire, at Sokka who was still lying on the ground. Looking up in time to see the fire coming in for his face, Sokka rolled to the side, singing the back of his shirt. Leaping to his feet, Sokka swung his club at the two men. The other firebenders were scrambling to get around the enormous log in order to capture Sokka without injuring their comrades. One of the two firebenders, a tall, skinny young man, evaded Sokka's swing while the other crumbled to the ground.

Sokka yelped as he jumped back to barely avoid a flying whip lash of flame, but in the process he fell onto the tent. Scrambling frantically over the collapsed tent, Jet watched as Sokka paled when he saw all the men had gotten over the log and were coming for him.

Obviously deciding that this was a fight he had no hope of winning, Sokka started calling for Aang and Katara at the top of his lungs while he ran away from the campsite with unexpected speed. Six well aimed blasts of fire whistled over his head and landed in front of him, the undergrowth and trees immediately bursting into flame and becoming a ten foot wall of fire. Without pausing Sokka turned on the balls of his feet in another direction, intent on escape.

Jet shook his head at Sokka's desperate attempts of running away. Every way Sokka turned he was cut off by fire. Finally he was completely surrounded, fire on three sides of him and his only route of escape through six soldiers controlling the fire surrounding him. Breathing heavily, Sokka gripped his club in one hand and his boomerang in the other, glaring with all the ferocity of a cornered animal at his attackers. Jet smirked placidly. Sokka was taken down; now all he had was Aang and Katara.

"Throw your weapons on the ground or else we'll burn you alive!" Makoto barked, his mere posture adding intimidation to the threat. When Sokka hesitated, gripping his weapons even tighter, the fire intensified in heat and drew much too close for comfort. Sokka made a disgusted sound and threw his weapons at the feet of Makoto as he was ordered to. Picking up the weapons, Makoto nodded to two of the firebenders and they came forward while the others held the fire up. Quickly searching Sokka's person they didn't find any other weapons and then gripped his arms harsh enough to leave bruises. Sokka's face was grim and he stood ridged, his eyes staring coldly at Makoto. Once Sokka was secured, the fire disappeared in a red flash of light.

_Time to make my grand entrance, _Jet thought as he left the trees and approached the group of firebenders, slowly clapping his hands and breaking the menacing quiet. The soldiers parted for Jet until he stood in front of Sokka. Jet stopped clapping his hands and enjoyed the look on Sokka's face.

"That was quite the fight, Sokka," Jet said in tones of mocking delight. "I wish I could say that you've improved after our last meeting, but that would be a lie." Sokka was still staring at Jet, his eyes large.

"Jet?" He whispered in disbelief as if he could not believe that the young man standing in front of him was the freedom fighter he had met all those months ago. Jet nodded, twirling the grass strand in his mouth.

"Yes, it's me."

"What are you doing here?" Sokka asked incredulously, starting to visibly become nervous. "How did you get out of prison and why are you working with Fire Nation?!"

"That's really none of your business," Jet replied, remaining unruffled while Sokka visibly became more upset. "But I will tell you I was let out of prison for a…special errand." Jet put emphasis on the word 'special' and made eye contact with Sokka. Jet ignored the restless firebenders and only concentrated on the fear in Sokka's eyes under all the rage. "What are you talking about?" Sokka asked darkly. "What do you have to gain by capturing me?" Instead of directly answering Sokka's demands, Jet started to talk about something seemingly unrelated.

"You know Sokka, I haven't forgotten that it was Katara who froze me to that tree and that it was you who foiled my plans." Jet said, in tones of false indifference. "You see Sokka…" Jet leaned forward and Sokka returned the glare. "I have some unfinished business to attend to with all of you, and _especially_ Katara." Sokka's eyes became large and Jet relished the flash of undisguised terror in his eyes before it disappeared and Sokka started to tremble in rage.

"You're out of your mind if you think I'm just going to sit by and let you carry out whatever sick plan you have for revenge." Sokka's voice was quiet, but it held a deadly anger in it that surprised the surrounding Fire Nation soldiers. "Stay away from my sister and Aang or you'll regret it."

The two firebenders holding Sokka exchanged slightly nervous glances. They didn't doubt for a moment that this kid wasn't serious, but Jet merely laughed in the furious Water Tribe boy's face.

"I hardly think you're in the position to threaten me," Jet said, amused. That amusement quickly fled his face as Jet unsheathed the tips of his T-Hook swords and held them up, angling it at Sokka as if preparing to strike. Surprisingly, Makoto unexpectedly spoke up. "Jet, enough of this garbage! We need to leave." Jet glanced at Makoto and then back at Sokka, his face expressionless.

"You're lucky I ran out of time to hurt you," Jet said coldly. "Judging by what you told Aang, I don't have much time to find Katara before he does."

Jet paused as Sokka used the soldier's arms who were holding him as leverage and then threw his weight back and hit the men between the legs. Moaning, eyes crossed, they let go and fell to the ground, unbalanced while Sokka made a mad dash for freedom, screaming for help with all his might.

Hissing in aggravation Jet broke into a run while he doubled his range by putting his two T-Hook swords together. While the other firebenders shot fire ahead to ward the Sokka off, Jet pivoted quickly and then caught Sokka's elbow and threw him to the ground roughly.

Immediately pouncing on the boy, they pulled him to his feet and held his arms, legs, and even his ponytail to the point where Sokka couldn't even move his head. Breathing heavily, Sokka glared at Jet as blood leaked through his shirt where Jet had caught him on the elbow. Ignoring Sokka, Jet turned to the three men who were not holding Sokka.

"I won't need your help in capturing the girl; go help the others hold off the Avatar, he's our main threat." Jet ordered sternly. Once the men disappeared into the foliage, Jet turned back to Sokka.

"I might be in a hurry, but I'll always have time for _this_," Jet snarled and punched the boy with all his might in the stomach. With a low, intense moan, Sokka pinched his eyes shut, not able to even fold over his injured stomach as he struggled for air.

"We don't have time to kill him, so knock him out, bind him in the ropes and then throw him in the thorn bushes." Jet said to Makoto's right hand man, since the captain had gone with the others after Aang. Nodding, Lok bashed Sokka over the head and the boy warrior immediately went limp. In a matter of minutes they had him bound tightly in coarse rope, gagged him with a soiled rag and thrown him into the large bushes.

"Follow me!" Jet barked and then raced into the forest, leaping into the tree tops while most of the men continued running on foot, turning pink with the effort of running in armor, particularly the ones how had been forced back into consciousness. As he raced from tree to tree, Jet grinned humorlessly. Things were in motion and everything was going according to plan.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Aang was walking at a brisk pace in order to meet up with Katara quickly, but he couldn't help but lag a little as he tried to sort his thoughts.

_She offered to help me, _Aang reasoned as he ignored the scenery he passed, _Last time I talked to her it __**did **__help put it behind me. I suppose it couldn't hurt to tell her. _The only problem was that Aang didn't _want_ to tell Katara, despite the fact that he'd already had the nightmare again. But if he could tell her about his past then he could tell her about this nightmare because he was beyond sick of having it.

Feeling somewhat better after making his decision, Aang suddenly paused, frowning as something teased the edges of his hearing. Turning around, growing more and more worried, Aang waited for a few moments before the sound reached his ears again, louder this time. It sounded like Appa roaring, rough, unfamiliar voices shouting amongst what sounded like Sokka's yelps and the roar of fire.

Sokka and Appa were being attacked! Aang immediately used his airbending to speed up his running, crashing through the undergrowth recklessly until he suddenly paused and grit his teeth. Katara was alone by the river, and Aang doubted that whoever was attacking them wouldn't attack them when they were split up like they were. Aang was ridged with indecision. Who should he help?!

"AANG! KATARA!"

That was Sokka and it definitely sounded like he needed help NOW. Aang instantly shot towards Sokka's voice, trying to convince himself that since Katara was by the river she would have a better chance of surviving until he and Sokka could join her. Aang abruptly found his sight blocked completely by Momo, who was tugging on his poncho urgently while chattering rapidly.

"Not now Momo Sokka needs our help!" Aang snapped, trying to pull Momo off his face while continuing to maneuver the forest at a dangerous speed. A sharp, whizzing sound cut through Aang's concentration and he only recognized the sound since he hated it so much.

"Augh!" Aang threw himself into a tree to avoid being pierced by an arrow aimed at his shoulder. Blinking hard to clear the spots in his vision, Aang tugged Momo around so the lemur was clinging to the back of his poncho. That arrow hadn't been aimed to kill, but it had managed to slice threw his poncho and cut his skin.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Aang shouted angrily very aware that the sounds of combat had ominously stopped coming from the campsite. His answer was a barrage of arrows flying towards him.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

She had finished warming up ten minutes ago, and with the silence surrounding her Katara became increasingly uneasy, the hairs on her neck pricking with gooseflesh. Brushing the hair out her eyes Katara restlessly stood, intending to check her water flask to make sure it was full. Katara paled when her hand met air. _Shoot!_ How could she have been so foolish as to not keep her water flask with her?! _Great,_ _now when I walk back to camp I'll be defenseless._

Agitated, Katara shifted her weight before glancing at Momo, who was lazily curled up on the grass watching her. Katara quickly kneeled down next to the lemur, effectively catching his attention by picking him up off the ground.

"Momo, I need you to listen carefully. Go find Aang for me and bring him here, okay?" Katara acknowledged it was futile to hope the lemur understood her. Especially after the many interpretations he had made when she had asked him for water while she and Sokka were sick.

Despite Katara's misgivings, Momo perked his ears at her words and then leapt out of her grasp, flying into the air towards the campsite. Katara blinked in shock for a moment, before straightening with a sigh. Sitting back on her rock for a moment, Katara reasoned with herself that since Momo was not exactly reliable in this instance, she should wait a little while before walking towards camp. Hopefully she would run into Aang on his way to the river.

_It shouldn't take this long to get fire wood, _Katara thought in mild annoyance. Frowning, Katara crossed her legs for lack of anything to do. _How pathetic. I can't even relax and enjoy a beautiful day because I think someone's watching me? It could just be a harmless forest creature! Or…it could be something else… _

Katara abruptly stood up and quickly began to walk back to the campsite. It was a bad idea to come to the river alone, and Katara was getting back to Aang and her brother as soon as she could.

The sky had been cloudy all day, and suddenly the lighting noticeably dimmed. Glancing up without breaking stride, Katara vaguely noticed the sun was hidden behind large grey clouds and the thick branches of the tress blocked whatever little sunshine was left.

In other words, the dim lighting made it harder to see if anything was hiding in the thick bushes surrounding her.

Katara had only walked a short distance from the edge of the forest where it sloped down to the river when she heard a loud, sudden crack. Jumping, Katara's heart leapt in fright as she immediately blurted out "Who's there?!"

Still rooted in one spot, Katara listened intently for a moment but there was no answer.

Feeling even more ill at ease, Katara started walking faster, nearly breaking into a run while her eyes never stopped darting around, wishing fervently that the sun would come out. Katara was positive that something was following her and she berated herself for misplacing her water flask. Katara briefly considered going back to the river for a water source, but at this point she was closer to the campsite.

The forest sounds seemed to suddenly fade for a moment and Katara's eyes widened when she heard the unmistakable sound of fire and rough battle cries. And they were coming from the direction of the camp.

Katara had momentarily paused when she recognized the sounds that had been teasing the edges of her hearing, and just when Katara was about to break into a run, she saw him.

For a moment, Katara locked gazes with a Fire Nation soldier hiding a couple trees ahead of her before she shrieked, turning on her heel to blindly run for the river. Katara was too alarmed to really think out what would be the best direction to go when her instincts suddenly screamed "Run away!"

Frantically looking over her shoulder Katara saw three Fire Nation soldiers chasing her, out of hiding and gaining on her with frightening speed despite their heavy armor. Born out of an adrenaline induced speed, Katara ran faster and saw the trees thinning out, hardly believing she was almost back to the river.

Glancing over her shoulder again, Katara grinned as she saw the men fall behind, unable to aim fire probably at her since she kept ducking around tree trunks.

_I'm gonna make it! _Katara thought wildly, leaping over a stone with an agility that could only be compared to Aang's. Katara couldn't stop another quick peek behind her when her body suddenly met resistance. Without having time to properly react, Katara only managed to whip her head around to plant it in the person's powerfully built chest. The force of her speed rebounded her off the person's chest enough for Katara to look up into the stranger's face.

Her face went completely blank along with her mind for one crucial second, hardly daring to believe this person wasn't a mirage before remembering the very realness of running into said person. Color fled out of Katara's cheeks as she screamed higher than she had thought possible for her voice while leaping out of Jet's reach.

But he was too fast for her.

His hands shot out and grabbed her wrists, pulling her too close to kick him. He lowered his head until his face was mere inches from hers, in a manner that was even more terrifying than when Zuko had done something similar months ago. A cold smirk tugged at Jet's lips and his eyes didn't betray what he was feeling.

"I've waited a long time for this Katara." He hissed and Katara's heart skipped a beat in terror.

*/^/*/^/*/^/*/^/*

Creating a large funnel of air Aang caught the arrows shot at him and threw them off course into the other tree trunks. Not wanting to waste time fighting these people, Aang immediately followed up with a strong gust of circling wind to vibrate the trees the shooters were hiding in. Spitting curses that made Aang mentally cringe, four Fire Nation soldiers dropped from the trees, bows and arrows strapped to their backs. One of them landed on his bow and yelped in pain as the woodwork snapped while the other three combined fire blasts to circle around Aang. Aang leapt into the tree above him, Momo still clinging to his poncho in terror while Aang evaded the long, snake like fire chasing him while setting leaves on fire. Just as the Fire Nation men formed a new attack Aang heard a chilling scream echo throughout the valley, so high in pitch that flocks of birds burst from the trees and into the sky. Aang's grey eyes widened in horror.

"Katara!"


	6. Jet Returns Part Two

**THIS CHAPTR WAS EDITED AS OF 1/19/06 **

11/11/05

Hello one and all!

Ouch. I am SO stiff after playing basketball yesterday for two and a half hours…which is why I had more time to write this chapter because I was lying on the couch and my bed for a while! Okay I decided to post this before tomorrow so it might not be as good as it might have been if I waited for another two days.

All right, as most of you know from reading my tabs, I have been struggling with this chapter. There's always one point in each of the chapters where I just wanna pull my hair out and start screaming. Once I get past that after a couple days, BAM I finish the chapter. So, I need you guys to tell technical goofs, Characters acting OOC, it needs a little more detail in some parts, etc. And I have to say I barely put any Jet POV in here at all, because things just were a lot easier to write from the other characters POV. That was another thing that slowed me down. The fight scenes are a doozie to explain and I hope I did a good enough job to not make you guys cringe. This chapter leads straight off of last chapters cliffhanger so be prepared, you're about to dive into one of this stories most fast paced chapters EVER. It jumps around a lot to so let me know if I need to be more specific about the time or something. And to my reviewers, I could NOT do this without you, thank you so much for taking the time to review!

**Lensgirlfriend: **HUH? Katara isn't going to DIE! DO you have ANY idea what people would do to me if I killed off Katara? I hope you were joking……

**Titanwolf: **Thanks, I'm glad that you love my story and it seems to me that you love AxK fluff… (Wink)

**SilverStorm106: **This is NOT updating soon, I know! But I'm serious, those fight scenes were KILLING me!

**Jalapeno1011: **You think THAT was intense? Wait until you read this one….

**Crimson Requiem: **Yep, I just about have cliffies at the end of every single chapter. Thanks about the peck on the cheek comment!

**Dragonsfire867: **Now, you finally get to know what happens! Thanks for thinking my pen name's clever…naw, you didn't sound pathetic! And do you really think last chapter was the best? Wow. I thought it had a lot of ups and downs. But hey, if my reviewers like it then I can pat myself on the back like you told me to!

**Sasscreech: **Wow, original name. Thank you for taking the time to read my story, I'm excited that you like it!

**TheDashLikes: **I can ALWAYS count on you to review and give an honest one at that! I really appreciate honesty! I'm sorry; this is NOT a fast update! And thank you so much for pointing out that "flu" thing. I can't believe I missed that, lol! Thanks for trying to give me another way to find Avatar stuff but the website name didn't show up on the review. But thanks for trying! And for telling me I did a great job; you always encourage me!

**Franny: **No, I'm sorry I didn't update fast on this one. Bad me. And I'm glad that you agree with that philosophy because that's why it took so long!

**Sk8erchick121: **Really? Another person thought last chapter was the best? Well, let's see how this chapter's reception is….and AGAIN I'm SORRY people for not updating soon! At least I'm consistent with updating once a week…right? (Dead silence) okay lame excuse. Moving on.

**Mystic Water Bender3: **EEK! I can't believe you actually read my story and LIKED it! Wow, that's SO cool that you liked it….thank you SO much for reviewing! And YES! I'm _so_ happy I caught your attention and that you updated your profile! You're welcome very much! I'm thrilled that your writer's block is going away!

Disclaimer: Okay, let's just insert a witty comment about me not owning Avatar: The Last Air bender so we can quickly skip over this and get on with the story.

**Chapter Five: **

**Jet Returns Part Two**

What happened next was pure instinct.

Katara brought up her knee and hit Jet as hard as she could between the legs. With a low hiss of pain, Jets hold on her wrists loosened enough for Katara to wretch free and bolt for the river.

"After her!" She heard Jet roar as Katara crashed through the underbrush.

"_Aang!" _She screamed. "_Sokka! He-elp!" _

**Sokka: **

Sokka opened his eyes, moaning through his gag. He must have hit his head on that stone nearby. His mind cleared quickly and in an instant Sokka remembered what had happened. Growling, he rolled onto his stomach and crawled out of the thorn bush like an inch worm.

Seeing a particularly large thorn, Sokka paused and turned his head towards it. Once it was in front of the cloth gagging him, Sokka grit his teeth and jerked his cheek across the thorn, ripping the thin piece of cloth off his face. Ignoring his smarting cheek and the numerous other cuts on his body Sokka continued inch worming out of the bush. Once he was clear of the thorny plants he made his way back into the camp site as fast as he could with his hands and feet tied. Once he reached his knife, which one of the Fire Nation soldiers must have dropped turning their scuffle, Sokka struggled up to a kneeling position and began furiously rubbing his wrists against the blade. He glanced around the campsite and his heart pounded when he saw the four men he had attacked earlier gone.

"C'mon, c'mon," Sokka hissed, sweat pouring down his face. He had to hurry! Each second wasted meant Jet getting closer to Katara!

Suddenly a blood curdling shriek spilt the air and almost made Sokka's heart stop.

"Katara…" He whispered in shock as he froze for a millisecond.

"Shoot!" He roared as he began rubbing even harder. "Break—you—stupid—rope!"

As if on cue the rope broke with a loud snap and Sokka immediately picked his knife up and then began cutting the thick ropes around his feet.

**Aang: **

"Katara….!"

Aang bolted towards the scream, unmindful of the men chasing him. The Fire Nation soldiers attacking Aang took advantage of his distraction and sent a large, boiling mass of fire at him.

Seeing the fire coming towards him out of the corner of his eyes, Aang spun around on his heels and held his hands out to block the attack with a shield of air.

The attack was powerful and Aang slid backwards a couple feet, digging a deep skid mark in the grass. Without giving the Avatar a chance to recover two of the men began throwing out long lashes of fire while the third backed up a couple feet and started shooting arrows at Aang.

Looking up, Aang barely had time to block the two long whip lashes and the arrows that were being fired at him at a rapid rate.

The two fire benders kept a hold of their fire lashes, and using them like a long whips, kept Aang solely concentrated on defense.

The whips were fast, strong and unpredictable. Aang barely managed to dodge them a couple of times. Growing frustrated with the flying arrows, fire whips and the knowledge that Katara was being attacked, Aang lost it.

Giving out a terrifying battle cry the Avatar knocked both whips to the side with a gust of air. A spilt second later Aang sent a very powerful blast of wind at the men, knocking them off their feet while at the same time throwing them deep into a large cluster of bushes.

Spinning on his heels, his eyes burning brightly, Aang turned around and parted the air in front of him and raced as fast as he could towards the scream, hoping desperately Katara was okay.

**Katara: **

Gasping for breath, Katara looked behind her to see if they were following her.

No one was there.

Incredulous, Katara slid to a stop and stared behind her for a few seconds before it hit her.

_Idiot! Don't stand still they're in the tree tops! _

Turning around Katara ran to the river. It had never seemed so far away!

Suddenly she heard the sound of leaves being thrust aside roughly. Looking up above her, Katara's eyes widened when she saw Jet and three Fire Nation men leaping from tree to tree. They were easily keeping up with her, and Jet was even getting ahead.

Looking ahead of her Katara's heart raced when she saw how close she was. Five more steps and she'd be in the meadow in front of the river!

Suddenly the men and Jet dropped from the trees, the men behind her and Jet in front of her. Screaming again, Katara swerved and narrowly missed crashing into one of the giant tree trunks.

She heard Jet cursing and the others crashing through the bushes behind her. She felt a tug on her elbow. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jet snag it again with the hooks of his Twin Tiger swords. Yanking her elbow away viscously Katara gave a short spurt of speed. Her breathing became labored and she had a very painful stitch in her side.

"Whoa!" She yelped as she slid on a patch of moss.

A Fire Nation man with a long black mustache lunged ahead and to the side of her, cutting off her escape into the meadow where the river was.

Katara's heart sank as she realized the men were herding her away from her only source of water in the forest. Suddenly the hooks of Jet's Twin Tiger swords snagged her shoulders and Katara felt herself being thrown back roughly.

Crying out, Katara stumbled to regain her balance but Jet's arm came up around her waist and locked her there while he held one of his swords to her throat.

Breathing heavily and trying desperately not to cry, Katara felt the heat of Jet's breath on her neck as he stood there panting. She put both of her hands up over the wrist that held the knife and tugged desperately, but Jet's arm remained unmoving.

"Get—the—ropes!" He snapped to the soldiers who had their hands on their knees as they bent over trying to catch their breath.

"If you cooperate, I won't hurt—" Jet started to say but was cut off by Katara throwing her head back and smashing it against his chest.

With a low hiss of pain Jet tightened his hold on her waist until she could barely draw a deep breath. The sharp edge of the knife was now touching her skin and if she leaned forward a fraction of an inch she would slit her own throat.

_What do I do? _Katara thought wildly as she watched one of the men approach her, carrying thick, sturdy ropes.

"Tie her feet!" Jet ordered. Katara helplessly watched the man kneel down in front of her.

Setting her teeth and feeling rage rise up within her Katara lashed out viscously with her foot and caught the man in the nose and mouth. Shouting in pain, the man fell on his back and clutched his bleeding nose. Without wasting a second Katara yanked hard on Jet's wrist, pulling the blade away from her throat enough so that she could lean forward and then body slam Jet into the back of the tree he was standing in front of.

Jet shouted words that were unrepeatable as Katara leapt forward, freed from the rebel's powerful grip.

Katara quickly grabbed a rock from the ground and hurtled it at the second soldiers head to delay him. Ducking to avoid the large stone the man stumbled over a stump, lost his balance and fell down cursing. Hearing Jet scrambling to his feet, Katara ran faster, hoping she could get away and hid in one of the trees.

But she underestimated the Fire Nation soldier she had kicked in the mouth.

He reached out and grabbed her ankle, knocking her to the ground. Immediately crashing to the ground, Katara began rolling down the steep slope until she crashed into a bush half way down the hill.

"Don't let her get away!"

Katara stood up, her heart pounding painfully, and when she saw what was in front of her she almost cried in relief.

A small stream that joined the river was in front of her!

Hearing footsteps behind her, Katara acted on instinct and with one rough movement sent the water flying through the air, knocking the man behind her to the ground. Jumping over the bush, Katara landed in the shallow stream and turned back to Jet and the man she had kicked in the mouth.

Katara smiled grimly at Jet before knocking him to the ground with a powerful move from the scroll.

"Fire!" She heard Jet roar as he stumbled to his feet.

In the blink of an eye Katara was frantically trying to remember her defense moves as the skilled fire bender that had been behind Jet closed in on her, soon joined by his companion.

"HELP!" Katara shouted as loud as she could, barely managing to see through the mist in the air.

_Sokka, Aang, where are you? _

**Sokka: **

Sokka cut through the ropes binding his feet and stumbled up, swaying a little from the numbness in his legs. Shaking his head forcefully Sokka ran over and grabbed his boomerang and club. Breaking into a dead run Sokka bolted in the direction he had heard the screaming.

"Katara!" He shouted. "Where are you?" When there was no answer Sokka ran even faster. He had been running for about ten minutes when suddenly he heard Katara scream his and Aang's name.

"Crap!" Sokka yelled and ran faster. Jet must be closing in on her!

The thought of that insane maniac capturing his sister gave Sokka such an adrenaline boost that he ran began running faster then he had ever run in his entire life.

Leaping over rocks and fallen logs, Sokka's heart felt like he was beating twice its normal speed as he raced to the spot he had heard his sister's voice.

**Aang: **

His heart was beating wildly as he crashed through the forest. She wasn't there, wasn't there—_where was she?_ He couldn't find her!

Aang started to panic.

"_Aang! Sokka! He-elp!" _

_KATARA!_

Aang rushed forward in the direction of the voice. He was beginning to hear the sound of other people crashing though the brush before he fell to the ground with a sharp, pain filled cry.

Wincing, Aang kneeled on his knees and pressed his hand on his arm. An arrow with red blood covering its tip lay a few feet away and he heard the shouts of fire benders closing in on him.

Looking up he saw the foremost of the fire benders, the one who had shot him with an arrow, fit another barbed arrow to his bow.

Aang didn't have time to react as the soldier sent the arrow flying.

Suddenly the arrow was knocked to the side by a spinning blue blur.

Scrambling to his feet while clutching his bleeding arm, Aang saw Sokka catch his boomerang.

"Run!" Sokka shouted as the other two crashed through the brush. "I can take them go find Katara!"

"Are you sure?" Aang called back in a concerned voice as he blocked a fire attack.

"Get out of here!"

Sokka lunged forward at the man who was shooting the arrows. Without allowing him time to fit an arrow to his bow or draw his sword, Sokka hit him over the head with his club, knocking the man unconscious.

Just then the four men Sokka had attacked earlier walked on the scene.

Aang had run away after Sokka had shouted and didn't see the six men closing in on the lone Water Tribe warrior boy.

**Katara:**

The fire attacks were coming faster and fiercer with each passing second. Katara was breathing heavily as she kept repeating the same defensive move to block the attacks as the fire benders slowly, but surely crept nearer.

Seeing a brief opening, Katara lashed out and knocked one of the men against a tree, effectively knocking him.

The second fire bender shot at her. Blocking the attack, Katara barely had time to react as Jet strategically jumped over the bush a spilt second after the attack and skidded to a halt in front of her.

Crying out in fear, Katara jumped back and narrowly escaped the swinging Twin Tiger swords. Jet drove her down the stream, delivering a terrifying onslaught. Katara kept jumping out of reach, not having any time to attack him.

Just after Jet had lunged at her Katara jumped back and in one smooth move yanked the water out from under Jet's feet so that the teen flipped back wards and hit his head on the rocky bed of the shallow stream.

The fire bender had been following behind Jet and the instant Jet fell over he sent a fire ball flying towards Katara.

Yelping, Katara shot a column of water at the fire ball, effectively extinguishing it and drove the water on until it reached the fire bender. Katara quickly froze him as she saw Jet quickly get on his feet, his body tensed and eyes glittering like a predator intent on his prey.

Spinning around on her heel Katara ran down the stream, but not as fast as before. She was getting dangerously tired.

She heard a strangled cry from Jet. Looking fearfully behind her Katara barely had time to see Jet throw his small hand knife at her. Acting on blind instinct Katara jumped to the right and scrambled up the sloping bank. Without looking behind her, Katara raced up the rocky hill. She heard the clatter of stones behind that meant Jet was chasing her. Gasping with the effort Katara pushed herself hard and ran faster.

She had almost reached the top when she felt a rock hit her hard in the shoulder. Give a short cry of alarm Katara lost her balance and fell down the sloping bank, hitting her head on one of the many stones.

Closing her eyes to the intense pain in her head, Katara heard footsteps walking up to her before she lost consciousness.

**Sokka: **

He swallowed hard as the men approached him. The four he had knocked out earlier now had nasty, discolored bumps on their heads and the expressions on their faces made the fine hair on the back of Sokka's neck stand straight up.

In the few seconds of when nobody made a move, Sokka went into a ready position when all at once all six fire benders hurtled fire attacks at him.

Sokka dodged the first, got in the way of the second, fell to the ground and stayed there until the other attacks had flown over his head. Leaping to his feet he barely had enough time to jump over a thin stream of fire directed towards his feet.

The men were closing in and Sokka decided to get close enough to where they would be forced to use their weapons instead of their fire.

Sokka rushed attacked the nearest soldier.

Keeping the soldier between him and the other fire nation men, Sokka ducked the small, close range fire spurts and in one clean, lucky move hit the guy upside the head and he blacked out, just like Sokka wanted him to.

Unfortunately, once the man had fallen it had left him without a shield…

Sokka's brow furrowed when they didn't immediately begin attacking him. Glancing to the side he saw all of them perform identical steps and then suddenly a fire wall appeared behind him to cut his escape off—just like they did last time at the campsite. If he didn't act fast they would roast him alive.

**Aang: **

Aang ran in the direction he had last heard Katara, feeling uneasy leaving Sokka alone to face the Fire Nation soldiers.

Glancing down at his arm, he saw that it had stopped bleeding; Aang's head shot up when he heard the sound of shouting.

_Yes!_ Aang thought in relief. He must be getting close!

**Jet: **

Breathing hard, Jet lowered his knife and walked up to Katara's limp form.

Jet nudged the girl's leg with his foot. When she didn't stir he grinned in triumph. Glancing over his soldier he saw the frozen Fire bender slowly having the ice melted from him by Shen.

Jet sheathed his knifes and bent over to pick up Katara. He held her bridal style and the girls head leaned limply over the edge of his arm.

_Nasty little wrench, _Jet thought in disgust as he turned around to walk away.

"**_Put her down NOW!" _**

Jet's head snapped up to see a small bald monk standing on the opposite side of the stream, his face livid.

Jet stood still for a moment, surprised that Aang had snuck up on him like this. He couldn't escape with Katara unless he took Aang out first.

With one quick movement Jet dropped Katara down and drew out his swords as the girls body slammed onto the rocky surface.

Leaping over the bank before Aang could react, Jet swung his swords at the Avatar's feet as he stood on the grassy bank.

Just as he had expected, Aang leapt into the air and began sailing over his head.

Using the hook at the end of his swords, Jet snagged both of Aang's feet and snatched him out of air and threw him into the shallow stream. A short hiss of pain exploded from the Avatar as his body connected with the hundreds of pointy rocks. Jet, wanting to get him out of the way but not kill him, swung the flat of his knife at the side of Aang's head.

But he hadn't counted on how fast Aang's reflexives were.

With an angry shout the Avatar knocked him back with a blast of water, knocking the wind out of him as Jet slammed onto the ground. Jet gasped for air as the Avatar scrambled to his feet, his eyes gleaming dangerously.

At that exact moment, two fireballs hit Aang square in his injured arm.

Giving out a scream that chilled Jet's blood, Aang doubled over in pain. Jet jumped at the Avatar and swung his swords for the final strike.

Aang looked up, his face contorted in pain and with the flick of his wrist knocked Jet out the air.

Growling in frustration, Jet scrambled to keep his feet as his two fire benders closed in on Aang. Right after Aang had deflected a strong blast of fire, Jet swung his knifes as him. Anticipating the gust of air, he ducked and gave the Avatar a shallow cut on his side.

Aang whirled around and began delivering a fast relay of air attacks, keeping Jet on his toes. Aang would throw a gust of wind; Jet would deflect it by placing his knifes in an "X" in front of his body.

Knifes flashed through the air so fast that they were barley visible. Aang's attacks weren't as strong as they were to begin with; he was weakening some, due to the loss of blood flowing through his injured arm.

Jet grinned when he saw the Avatar's limp right arm. Aang was handicapped!

_This is only a matter of time, _Jet thought smugly as he and the other fire benders started driving Aang away from Katara and deep into the forest.

**Sokka: **

Taking a deep breath Sokka dodged a flash of fire and bolted towards the forest to escape the fire wall. If he tried to fight his way out the Fire benders would trap him in that wall of fire and burn him alive.

Catching on to Sokka's idea, the fire benders who hadn't been helping decide to collaborate. They helped speed the wall up, closing it on both sides of Sokka instead of one.

Gritting his teeth as he watched the two fire walls speed towards each other, Sokka knew he wouldn't reach the gap in time.

He would have to go through the wall, or else turn and fight a losing battle.

A shout escaped from Sokka lips as he threw himself forward in a gigantic leap to clear the gap, covering his face with his arms. Coming out onto the other side of the crackling fire, Sokka couldn't resist whooping in relief. He had made—OW!

Still running, Sokka swatted frantically at the flame licking at the edge of his tunic. Glancing over his shoulder Sokka's stomach lurched when he saw the line of fire _chasing him down. _

Finally putting out his tunic, Sokka ignored his smarting hand and darted to his left and began zig zagging to confuse the fire benders who were frantically trying to keep him in their sights in the dense forest.

Suddenly Sokka jumped and grabbed onto a low branch on one of the trees and pulled himself up into the dense foliage. If the fire wall kept coming he would jump and make a run for the river.

But just as he had hoped the wall's great height shortened until it was hovering only two feet off the ground.

"Where's that brat gone to?" He heard one of the men yell, his words slurring.

"Look around! He must be hiding in the trees!" his comrade answered.

At those words Sokka climbed higher into the tree, intent on concealing himself.

He had only gotten half way up, snapping small twigs and brushing leaves aside when he froze, his heart pounding.

The footsteps he had been hearing earlier were closer now.

_Shoot, _Sokka thought desperately when he saw the two soldiers pause under his tree. If they looked up they would see him and then set the tree on fire!

_I'm dead meat. _Sokka thought weakly.

Sokka thought he was done for when something unexpected happened.

The sound of clashing swords and the roar of wind and fire distracted the soldiers under Sokka's tree.

"What's going on?" He heard them muttering to themselves.

Sokka peered out between the leaves and looked down from his lofty perch. Suddenly Aang, a fire bender and _Jet_ burst out of the trees, locked in an intense fight. With a soft gasp Sokka watched with wide eyes as about five fire benders began attacking Aang alongside of Jet and the tall, dark haired fire bender.

"Aang!" Sokka shouted when he saw his friend lifeless arm hanging limp at his side. Straddling the branch he was on Sokka yanked out his boomerang and sent it flying, without thinking twice.

After it knocked the helmet off a soldiers head, the soldier turned around and pointed to the tree.

"The boy's in that tree!" He shouted, running over to Sokka's tree.

"Man!" Sokka exclaimed, slapping his forehead as his boomerang swung back and then lodged high up above Sokka's head into the trunk. He _so_ stupid!

Seeing the fire bender nearing his tree Sokka had no choice but to leave his boomerang. He had almost reached the bottom when the fire bender reached the foot of the tree. Sokka spat a large glob of spit down at the fire bender to give him a chance to scramble back up into the tree.

He heard a howl of rage mingled with disgust erupt from the soldier.

With a thrust of his arm, the fire bender set Sokka's tree on fire.

**Aang: **

Jet was driving him back wards and Aang was trying desperately to hold his ground, but his injured arm inhibited him. Jet was fast and when Aang tried to knock him over with air, the rebel either dodged him, or clung on tightly to a nearby branch.

The well trained fire bender didn't help matters at all either.

Aang blinked the sweat out of his eyes in order to see. Before allowing Jet to swing at him and snag his clothing or worse, Aang jumped back about four feet and leapt high into the air, landing on a tree branch.

Jet darted under the tree to start climbing while the fire bender sent a large mass of fire at Aang. Frowning, Aang lifted his good arm and using a shield of air, stopped the fire from attacking him.

Instead, he sent it back flying to its owner with great force.

The fire bender staggered back just as Aang heard the whizzing of Jet's swords and jumped up the next branch in time to avoid Jet's Twin Tiger swords. Without wasting a moment Jet used his hooks to swing his body up onto the branch Aang was standing on in the matter of a couple moments.

Aang jumped out of the tree and back onto the ground. Hitting the ground before Jet Aang spun on his heel to avoid the attack from the fire bender who had been waiting for an opening.

Just as Aang sent the fire flying back at the soldier like he had before, Jet jumped down almost on top of him and nearly slashed his head off.

Aang jumped back and knocked Jet against the tree with an angry blast of air.

"What are you doing here?" He shouted at Jet. His answer was a series of lightening fast attacks.

They ended up moving backwards; Aang and Jet were spinning every which way to avoid and hit the other. At this point it was a close range fight, and neither Jet nor Aang were landing any hits.

The fire bender, his hair flying loose from his top knot, was following close behind, but it was impossible to try and attack the Avatar without striking Jet.

Just as they burst into a clearing, Aang heard men shouting. Out of the corner of his eye he saw _more_ fire benders coming on the run.

Deciding that close rang attack wasn't working Aang avoided Jet's sword slash and tripped him with his foot.

As the teen fell to the ground with a crash, Aang backed up. The men were approaching him in a half circle and Aang quick a fast one-eighty and then slammed his foot on the ground, causing an arc of air to explode from his foot and knock down the foremost of the fire benders.

Immediately the ones behind began firing. Too busy to wonder where Jet was Aang blocked every move, careful to keep his injured arm out of the way.

"Aang!" he suddenly heard Sokka's voice shout from somewhere in the tree tops. Aang glanced around and the fire bender closest to him drew into an attack stance.

A low _zing_ was heard and the soldier's helmet flew off of his head.

Aang didn't know where Sokka was, and was busy frantically blocking the fire attacks, sometimes even sliding backwards a couple feet when a particularly powerful one would damage his air shield.

_Where's Jet? _Aang thought in alarm, looking around wildly. To his horror he couldn't see the teen _anywhere. _

Through the sounds of the battle Aang suddenly heard Sokka cry out in alarm. Aang glanced up and to his horror saw one of the hundred foot trees on fire and a blue clad boy scrambling to the top of the tree to avoid the angry flames.

"Hang on Sokka!" Aang shouted as he deflected two combined attacks.

But the men closing in on him heard his shouting and began fighting with renewed intensity, forcing Aang away from the burning tree.

Sweat was dripping into his eyes as Aang used every muscle of his body to avoid his enemy's blows. Aang started to panic when only after a few minutes of combat the fire consuming the tree Sokka was in was already more then half way up the tree.

Suddenly Aang heard Jet's voice cry out from somewhere in the tree tops.

"I HAVE THE GIRL FALL OUT!"

"_No!" _Aang exclaimed through gritted teeth. With a sweep of his arm he sent three men sprawling. Aang spun around to attack the soldiers to his right but one well aimed spurt of fire to his already burned and bleeding arm caused Aang to scream in agony and fall to the ground.

Aang was dimly aware of the fire benders stampeding past him as he fought for consciousness. Suddenly Sokka's panicked voice broke through his fuzzy thoughts and Aang looked up and saw the flames almost to the top of the tree, where the Water Tribe boy was perched, waving one arm madly.

Gasping for breath Aang ran over to the tree. He hated losing Jet's trail but he _couldn't _and _wouldn't _let Sokka be roasted alive.

"Sokka you have to jump!" Aang screamed so that the older boy could hear him.

"_Are you crazy?_ It's a hundred feet to the ground!" Sokka shouted back, looking apprehensively down at Aang.

"You have to trust me!" Aang shouted.

Just as the fire reached the top Sokka threw himself in the air, arms failing wildly while he shrieked in undisguised terror.

Aang took a deep breath to study himself from the pain, and air bended the air around Sokka, having the boy drift to the ground like a leaf until firm land was under his feet.

"Come on!" Sokka gasped his face pale and slick with sweat as he ran past Aang in a flurry of singed clothing. Aang ran at Sokka's heels but it seemed each time one of his feet would hit the ground his arm would jolt and began bleeding.

They had only run about twelve feet when they were forced to stop. They were physically exhausted but that wasn't what made Sokka's face turn white or Aang drop his head and moan. They was no trail of Jet or his men.

Suddenly laughter reached their ears and they looked up, spinning in a circle in an attempt to locate the hidden person. Sokka bared his teeth at the sound of Jet's mocking laugh.

"Show yourself!" He shouted, clutching his fists together.

The laughter stopped abruptly. Aang and Sokka stood rooted to the same place for the next few moments, still unsure of where the laughter had come from when Jet's voice drifted back to them, far away and hardly discernable.

"Look for fire works when you want to find us!"

Sokka bolted towards the direction the voice had come from. Aang had tried to follow but the pain in his arm overwhelmed him to the point of screaming.

"Sokka…" Aang gasped, sliding to a stop.

Aang doubled over in pain, breathing hard and fighting back tears.

Through blurred vision Aang saw Sokka slid to a stop and look back at him.

When Sokka saw Aang's condition he knew they couldn't go further. Aang heard Sokka give an enraged shout when only the sound of birds singing, the roar of fire and Aang's heavy breathing met his ears.

Aang closed his eyes in pain, his heart breaking.

It was too late to save her. Precious minutes had been lost, and now Jet and his men were gone without a trace, along with Katara.

**Authors ending notes…..**

Yep, I'm evil for breaking off like that but this chapter is so long already! And I know, a "fire whip" is like, SO corny but I mean what else was I supposed to call it when the soldiers were using the fire like that? If you have a better idea, TELL ME PLEASE. Oh and here's something random I have to comment on. WHAT is UP with all of those fan fictions that always have the line: "Sokka: I'm hungry! A&K: You're always hungry" Man that is getting SO old it's one of my pet peeves, along with every one saying something about Katara water whipping someone or thing. You'd think it's the only move she knows……

PLEASE review and tell me what you think because after hassling with those fighting scenes all week long I'm STILL not sure if I got them down! I NEED other people's opinions! Thanks for reading this story! (oh, and Sokka got his boomerang back as he scrambled up the tree to avoid the fire--stupid maybe but it was from his Father and we all know how much Sokka loves that thing...)

Sincerely,

1bzwriter!

P.S. Who is VERY happy to be done with this pesky chapter...


	7. Pursuit

**THIS CHAPTER WAS EDITED AS OF 1/19/05**

11/25/05

First off I'd like to apologize for how long this chapter took! TWO WEEKS, augh!—_faints_—I am so busy with relatives over for the holidays and house cleaning, outing and all that stuff that I didn't have a chance to update! Sorry! This chapter is pretty long, but could be considered boring compared to the last two chapters!  
So anyways this chapter was REALLY hard to write, because the creative juices had a jam up. (And because my little sister spilled water all over my chapter's notes, washing it out so bad that I can barely read it)

All right, enough with the excuses!

Wasn't The Water bending Master AWESOME? I think it's the best one of the series—maybe only the finale can top that! (Of which I am DYING to see!)

"Pursuit" is basically the calm before the storm, building up the tension for the next chapter. One more thing; I decided that I needed to change Jet's prison sentence so just go back to the Prologue and re-read that bit of dialogue real quick please!

I'll give you a hint for next chapter…..everyone reaches the fortress, things go awry for Jet and Katara, and Aang and Sokka attempt to break into one of the most fiercely guarded fortresses they have ever seen. (Its very similar to the one Aang was held captive in "The Blue Spirit")

I just have to get this chapter out there I have no idea if it's crappy or not after working on it for so long.

Okay, I'm too impatient for any more comments; on with the shout outs!

**Sasscreach: **I'm happy that I made you enjoy fight scenes more then usual! That's so nice of you to say! And as for how long this story is, I don't mind spilling the beans. I have it all outlined on paper so after "Pursuit" there are only two more chapters; TROJ is a short story!

**Titanwolf: **Actually, it kind IS that obvious, lol. I can't express how thrilled I was at your reaction! Action scenes are really tough because basically you have to each every little part of the fight in your minds eye and then use the rights words to explain what you "see." Lotsa work, I'm glad mine paid off!

**Jalapeno1011: **I love that part 2 seriously, that's the first thing that came to my mind when I pictured myself in Katara's position. BAM! Right in the spot!

**Dragonsfire867: **SIX IN THE MORNING? That's insane to a late riser such as myself! A little trouble following huh? _Thoughtful expression _I'll need to double check that chapter soon…..btw can't wait to see that Avatar site!

**Franny: **Thanks for the review and the encouragement! Your words meant a lot to an author such as myself and I'm sorry to say that you DID have to wait longer then a week for this one…._shakes head sadly_

**Crimson Requiem: **I know, poor Aang! Gosh he must feel like crap….and next chapter I promise I'll put up sooner!

**Goofy.Goober: **There were? Rats, I'll have to go back and fix those—and no more cliffys? Sorry, but HOW am I supposed to keep you guys interested if I don't make you want more? _Evil grin _So I suppose you know what's at the bottom of this page…

**Cydney busler: **Don't worry I promise not to leave any loose ends! Thank you SO MUCH for your review it was greatly appreciated.

**KimchiCrusader: **THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TELLING ME ABOUT JET AND MY FIGHT SCENES! I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS CHAPTER!

**Carlita Ann: **Bad things can happen to people EVEN IF a story is rated K Miss Carlita Ann….. (Mwuahaha!) I loved your comments, I can't express how much reviews mean to me! People seem to like Jet getting kicked by Katara I have too say that I enjoyed writing it because I don't like Jet very much. (He fascinates me, but still…)

**TheDashLikes: **I am so glad you reviewed! I was concerned you weren't going to!

But you pulled through! Yay! Are you serious about the comments with the fighting scenes? Oh my gosh I am so pumped whenever I finish reading your reviews! (thanks for the website I found a lot out I'm indebted) I've noticed that authors have the characters repeat the same move over and over in a fight too…gets on my nerves. Seriously, A REAL FIGHT ISN'T LIKE THAT. Ah, yes. I hate slow internet, I feel your pain. ;) I'm thrilled I kept you at the edge of your seat! Here's more!

**Special thanks go to the Mystic Benders sisters I LOVED and REALLY appreciate your comments! But I'm in a hurry to start this chapter so you guys get special mentions! **

Disclaimer: HOW MANY TIME TO I HAVE TO SAY I DON'T OWN AVATAR TO GET IT THROUGH YOU LAWYERS THICK HEADS?

Lawyers: HEY! WE HEARD THAT!

1bzwriter: Drop dead I want to start my story.

**Chapter Six**

**Pursuit**

As Katara woke up, she shifted uncomfortably on the hard ground, her body sore from the other day. Slowly, rather reluctantly, Katara opened her eyes, bracing herself for the worst.

Her eyes took in the tent and the blanket she was lying on in a moment. The lighting was dim and Katara waited for her eyes to adjust, blinking owlishly and trying to clear her foggy brain. Carefully looking at the tent wall Katara noticed the backwards fire nation insignia. But the sight of the fire nations embalm wasn't what made Katara's lips pull back in a silent snarl. It was the person sitting next to the tent door.

Jet was motionless, frowning intensely at the floor as if in deep thought. He was completely oblivious to the fact that she was awake. Katara's gaze lingered on the swords adorning Jet's back distrustfully. So far he had still taken no notice of her and Katara tried to sit up so she could be ready to defend herself if necessary. When she made the move to brace herself up with her hands, Katara realized with dismay her hands were bound with thick, scratchy rope.

Katara pulled her wrists apart to see if any weak spots would appear but to her chagrin it only made the rope pull her wrists tighter together.

Making a sound of disgust Katara rolled onto her back. After lifting her shoulders and head forward a couple times Katara managed to gain the momentum to get her upper body in the air so that she could sit up without using her hands.

Katara's abrupt movements and irate sigh snapped Jet out of his thoughts and his head jerked up.

The hairs on the back of Katara's neck stood straight up as she locked gazes with Jet, his face dark and unreadable.

Katara scowled at him, refusing to break eye contact even though she wanted to avoid his gaze. Jet stared back at her the same unreadable expression. To Katara it was like being stared at by a platypus-bear who is wondering if he should eat you.

Small beads of sweat began forming at her hairline as minutes passed and neither one of them spoke, moved or looked away. The air was practically snapping and popping at the tension in the small tent.

_What is he going to do to me? _Katara thought nervously although she kept her dirty look in place.

"What do you want with me?" Katara finally asked her voice harsh to convey her hostility all the more.

Jet smirked. "You'll find out soon enough." Jet's tone of voice chilled her to the bone and Katara dropped her angry glare, eyeing Jet warily. Suddenly the tent flap was thrown open and a Fire Nation soldier poked his head through the opening.

"The canoes are packed and we're ready to go." He said, wasting no time with his words. Katara shifted her gaze and gave the soldier the evil eye as an excuse to stop the staring contest.

His cold brown eyes met hers and his face twisted into a mocking smile.

"Nice to see you're awake." He said, his voice oozing with sarcasm.

Katara stuck her tongue out at him as Jet turned his head and muttered something to the soldier. The fire bender's head pulled out of the tent and Jet stood to his feet, leaning over slightly to avoid the low roof of the tent.

Katara watched him suspiciously as he walked towards her. Without hesitating Jet picked Katara up bridal style and stepped outside of the tent while the Water Bender protested loudly, struggling in his grip.

Jet walked by the remains of a campfire, struggling to keep a grip on Katara as she tried jamming him with her elbow, biting his wrist, and kicking his side to get him to set her down.

"You know I could just _drag_ you to the canoes."

Katara stopped struggling and glared up at Jet's chin, being too close to his chest to see his face.

"What do you want with me?" She demanded again, trying hard not to let her fear show through her voice. Jet kept looking ahead and didn't glance at Katara's face, his own face completely empty of any emotion except for the unreadable look flickering in his eyes.

"You'll find out soon enough."

Katara turned her face away from Jet's chest and held herself stiffly, not the least bit comfortable in his arms.

_This is nothing like it was last time. _Katara thought suddenly, remembering when Jet had pulled her into his tree house. _I can't believe I actually_ liked _this jerk, _Katara added to herself regretfully.

Her eyes darted around at all of the Fire Nation men standing by the river bank, grabbing bags and tearing down Jet's tent. Katara's gaze finally rested on the river. As soon as Jet put her down she could make it _very_ difficult for him to even _sit_ down once she was closer to the water.

"If you even try to water bend," Jet said stoically as he walked down the river bank where the main group of battered soldiers were standing, "I'll knock you out." Katara felt deep resentment and anger towards Jet and expressed it by growling at him.

As of that moment, she hated him.

Stepping into the shallow river water Jet dumped her unceremoniously into the prow of the small canoe. Katara winced as her side collided with the rough wood of the canoe. Glaring at the wooden plank in front of her Katara grit her teeth in anger as Jet and another fire bender climbed into the small canoe.

"Aang and Sokka will come for me," Katara said suddenly as they shoved off, her voice confident and defensive at the same time.

She kept her gaze fixed on the wall of the canoe, refusing to look back at Jet but she knew he was smirking.

"Why else would I waste my time with you?" He hissed for only her to hear.

Katara refused to let his words hurt her. She was _over_ him…but no matter what Katara told herself his words still stung.

"Why are _you _doing working with the Fire Nation?" Katara replied, pleased she had thought of a come back so quickly. "I thought you hate—"

She interrupted herself when the pointy tip of Jet's boot kicked her back.

Biting her lip to keep herself from yelping, Katara looked up at the sunset coloring the sky desperately hoping to see a bison following the canoes. She saw nothing; not even a bird! That was strange considering they were still by the Miya forest….._They'll come, _Katara assured herself even though her heart sank. _They won't leave me here with Jet. They'll come to rescue me. _

Katara bit her lip. That is, if they _could _comeIf Jet did this to her, what would he have done to Aang and Sokka?

Jet and the fire bender said nothing, and Katara gradually began to take notice of what two soldiers in the canoe next to them were talking about as the sunset faded and a blanket of darkness settled over the land.

"Wow, that's a nasty bump." One of them commented.

Katara heard the other soldier grunt moodily.

"Which person did you get it from? The Avatar or the Water Nation boy?" The first soldier asked, pressing his companion to talk.

"I got it from the Water Tribe (beep)." The second soldier snarled.

"I hope he burned to a crisp in the tree Matsu lit on fire!" He added vehemently.

"I'll second that," Someone else said from one of the other canoes.

Their cruel chuckling was lost on Katara. She felt like she had been punched in the gut. Her breathing became ragged and she felt nauseous. Her head throbbed, and her eyes along with the back of her throat burned.

Sokka couldn't be…….

_Don't say it, _Katara thought as she squeezed her eyes shut to relieve the burning sensation. _Don't even think it. _

She heard Jet chuckling behind her. Katara's eyes shot open and narrowed until they were mere slits. She desperately wanted to snap back at the teen but the quickly forming bruise at the small of her back warned her not to. Once Jet stopped, Katara scanned the sky again, hoping desperately to see Appa.

The only objects she saw were tiny insect eating bat rats.

The waves around the canoe became choppy as Katara unwittingly water bended the water around the canoe in her state of agony.

"Hey!" Jet exclaimed sharply, grabbing the sides of the canoe as it dipped back and forth violently. "_Knock it off!" _

Immediately the waves stopped and Katara bit her lip, officially starting to panic.

Where were Aang and Sokka? What was going to happen to her? Katara closed her eyes and blocked out the sound of the soldiers vulgar talk as they traveled down the river.

**Aang and Sokka:**

"_Don't!" _

Aang snapped sharply, yanking his arm away as Sokka attempted to clean it with a wet strip of clothing. Sokka's body was stiff and jerky in its movements and his face plainly portrayed how frustrated he was.

"Aang," he said with forced patience as the air bender drew away even farther, "I have to clean it before it gets infected!"

Giving an irritated sigh Aang reluctantly came back and Sokka gave him a stick to bite into for the pain.

"Now this might hurt—" Sokka stopped talking as Aang hissed in pain, his pale face going even whiter. Sokka set his teeth together and quickly put some herb gunk he had just mashed together on Aang's burned arm and then bandaged it.

_If Katara was here she could just heal this, _Sokka thought grimly as he tied the cloth together as best as he could with his swollen fingers.

"Done."

Aang spit out the stick and rose unsteadily to his feet. Sokka grabbed Aang's good arm to steady him as the air bender swayed crazily.

"Slow down, will ya?" Sokka said impatiently, stressed out from his sisters kidnapping and lack of sleep combined with his injuries.

Aang stood still for a couple seconds and then jerked his arm away from Sokka and walked away.

"You sure get hurt a lot," Sokka said dryly as he glanced at the small scar on the side of Aang's head from the incident in the Ice Mountains.

Aang grunted and then climbed onto Appa. "C'mon," He said wearily. "We have to keep looking."

"We've been looking since yesterday afternoon, all night and all of today. We need to rest."

Sokka saw the dangerous look in Aang's eyes and added hurriedly, "What good would it be to find her and then not be able to rescue her because we're half dead from lack of sleep?" Sokka watched the range of emotions flash across Aang's face and knew the air bender was very frustrated.

"All right." Aang said quietly, his lips pressing together in a thin line. Sokka nodded in agreement.

"Okay then. Grab a shady spot and go to bed." Sokka lay down on his sleeping bag and watched Aang walk stiffly under a shady tree and lay down, gingerly resting his arm to the side while he stared at the toes of his boots.

Sokka stared up at the sunset and waited for sleep to come. Unfortunately, even though he was exhausted, sleep was impossible. All he could think about was Katara and what sick things Jet might be doing to her. Apparently Aang felt the same way because he never closed his eyes. Instead he stared down at the ground in front of him so intensely that it was like he was trying to earth bend.

Soon Appa's guttural snores and Momo's quiet chirps filled the air as time went on and Aang and Sokka still couldn't fall asleep, their minds refusing to slow down.

"How are we supposed to find her?" Aang asked suddenly, startling Sokka so much that he jumped in surprise and then looked over at Aang.

Aang's face was a blend of frustration and despair. Sokka pressed his lips together; he was wondering the same thing. Suddenly a light bulb clicked.

"Do you remember what Jet said?"

"Jet said a lot of things." Aang said stonily.

"No, I'm talking about when he told us to look for fire works to find them." Sokka explained.

Aang's face brightened. "Then all we have to look for fire works and we find Katara! Wait," He added, frowning, "Why would he want us to find him?"

Sokka looked Aang straight in the eye as he said bluntly, "Because it's a trap."

Aang sighed heavily and closed his eyes.

"Then we better get some sleep. We'll need it when we rescue Katara."

**Jet: **

The full moon was partly covered with clouds, shining meager light on the small fleet of canoes going upriver. Jet was tense as he pulled his paddle through the water, fighting the currant as his sharp, calculating eyes scanned the banks, and then the sky for any sign of the Avatar.

Katara stirred at his feet restlessly. The cramped space must be uncomfortable. Jet smirked down at the back of the Water bender's head and then looked sharply to his left as he heard a sudden snap in the brush.

Eyes narrowed, Jet watched the area in his peripheral vision as he glanced up at the towering ice mountains, an ominous rumbling coming from the clouds resting at the peak.

His men were drained from the ordeal of capturing the girl. Several of them had nasty, purple-black colored bumps and gashes on their heads, and many of them were sore and moody because of the pain.

Jet glanced up at the sky again. They couldn't allow the Avatar to find them in this weakened condition. That was why Jet was having them travel at night and hide in caves in the day time to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Jet heard Katara give a frustrated sigh as she vainly tried to sit up out of the cramped position she was in. Jet watched her attempts in amusement as Katara barely managed to prop her head up against the side of the canoe. His amusement vanished when she flipped her body on her back so that she landed on his feet.

"Hey!" He hissed in anger, keeping his voice down it wouldn't alert their presence to any would-be stalkers. Katara glared up him, her face clearly visible by the pale light the moon was giving off.

"I can't move back!" She hissed back, her tone of voice vibrating in anger and disgust as she wiggled her body back and forth.

Fine, if she couldn't move _he_ would move her.

Withdrawing his paddle from the river Jet grabbed Katara's shoulder and dragged her upright until she was off of his toes and sitting up with her back against the side of the canoe and her legs in front of her.

He saw her wince as he let go; he had made sure to grip her shoulder as hard as he could and he had probably made a mark.

Plunging his oar back into the river Jet gave Katara one of his unreadable, threatening looks as the water around the canoe grew choppy again. Once the girl had caught his look the water went back into its fast paced even flow and the girl examined her chafing wrists.

Makoto's boat drew closer so that he could talk without shouting across the river.

"When do you want to stop?" He asked his tone weary from paddling upriver. Jet paused as he considered the pain shooting up and down his arms.

"We want to make as much head way as we can," Jet said, using his

Commander's voice. "We'll stop when the sun rises."

A collective groan echoed across the water from the tired soldiers. Dawn was hours away and some of the men already had cramps. Ignoring the disgusted look on the Fire Nation captain's face Jet looked ahead as well as he could as the river wound its way through the small canyon it had engraved.

"Slave driver."

The words were softly spoken but not so softly that they didn't escape Jet's keen hearing.

"Watch your tongue unless you want me to cut it out," He said coldly to Katara, keeping his gaze fixed ahead. He made sure to keep his face expressionless, even though he tightened his jaw; he wouldn't express how he felt about being made into a human Popsicle with Katara until they were alone in the confines of the prison cell back at the Fire Nation fort with no witnesses.

He quickly looked down at Katara to see what kind of reaction his words had caused and saw that her face had paled considerably and that she kept her gaze fixed on her hands. Feeling a twinge of triumph, Jet thought about what he would say to her at Lazar's fortress.

The Fire Nation fort and Captain Lazar…….the faint lines around Jet's mouth tightened as well as his grip on his paddle.

He still had to figure out his strategy for convincing the greedy fool to drop his sentence down. Much farther down then fifteen years….he had only named that number because it wouldn't seem like a lot to the captain. But did he want to languish in prison for fifteen years until someone of a higher rank stopped by to execute him? _No. (BEEP) NO._

Jet was jerked from his thoughts as the sound of thunder reached his ears.

Everyone turned their eyes to the mountains. Jagged streaks of lightening flashed across the top, the clouds swirling together until the top of the mountains were invisible.

Jet swore wrathfully. They couldn't go over the mountains in the middle of a _storm. _Curse the infernal weather for interfering with his plans!

Suddenly Jet heard Katara muttering something under her breath about hard canoes, bad weather and raving maniacs who need their mouths washed out with soap.

"What was that?" Jet asked sharply as he heard the bit about raving maniacs.

"I said nothing." Katara muttered. Giving a disgusted sigh Jet pulled harder against the water, sick of interacting with the girl.

"Shut up." He said flatly. He had better things to think about, strategies, battle plans, his sentence and getting back to his freedom fighters….

Katara stayed silent and after another hour or two she fell into a fitful sleep. By then Jet's arms felt as if they were on fire and the men around him were starting to complain about rowing upriver for five hours straight.

"We're rowing until sunrise." Jet said shortly to the demands of rest, having to clench his teeth together as pain shot up and down his arms. Ignoring the indignant replies and the wails of not living that long Jet looked up at the mountains, now noticeably closer, and saw that the storm had stopped. Jet allowed a toothy grin to spread across his face even thought his eye lids were heavy, his backside and his muscles ached and his arms felt like they were being wrenched out of their sockets.

It seemed like fate was on his side after all.

**Katara: **

After what seemed like years, Katara felt the bottom of the canoe grad against the river bed.

"Wake up," She heard Jet say harshly as he shook her shoulder. Opening her eyes, Katara avoided Jet's piercing gaze and struggled to her feet.

"Whoa!" She shouted as her unsteady legs buckled and she almost fell out of the rocking boat.

Grabbing her bruised shoulder to keep her from falling Jet picked her up, with her hands and feet still tied, and slung her over his shoulder like a rag doll.

Katara glared at the sandy ground as she held herself stiffly while Jet walked up the bank. The soldiers were grumbling and slowly canoes were drug up the bank and hidden in bushes, tents set up in the shallow cave near the river, and breakfast was started.

Walking up the bank Jet roughly dropped her on her backside beside a log.

Without a word he immediately grabbed on of the tent bags and started setting it up a short distance away from her. Smarting from the stabbing pain shooting up and down her spine, Katara glanced around as the men set up their tents without a word. It was eerie; the sun still hadn't risen and the distant horizon was a pale, purplish pink color.

The only sounds were tent tarps flapping as they were tied together, the crunch of sticks underfoot, the rushing river, and the crackling of the small fire over which a scanty breakfast was being prepared by two sullen soldiers.

Katara felt very uncomfortable as the soldiers walking by her gave her nasty looks, sometimes mixed with a wicked gleam in their eyes that made Katara's skin crawl.

As sick and wrong as it sounded, at that moment as the Fire Nation men gathered around the fire, of which she was a short distance from, she wished Jet was standing by her with his usual hawk-like watchfulness.

Katara swallowed hard and avoided the looks she was receiving as no one said anything. The tension in the camp was unbearable. Katara almost screamed when Jet suddenly stepped over the log and walked by her, heading towards the fire.

Immediately the men turned around and small talk was exchanged between a couple individuals as the men waited for their food to finish cooking, rolling their shoulders in an attempt to relieve the pain.

The horizon had turned hot pink by the time plates were passed around and Katara hungrily eyed the steaming mash of onions and potatoes. She watched the men quickly eat as they wound down a little and grew concerned that they wouldn't feed her anything.

Katara had resigned herself to hunger by the time Jet walked away from the quickly dwindling group by the fire and set a tin plate with a medium sized portion on it beside her.

She glanced up in surprise at Jet but his face kept the same blank expression as he kneeled beside her and quickly cut her wrists. Katara gave him a wary look as she slowly rotated her wrist to get feeling back in her numb fingers.

"Why did you do that?" She asked suspiciously. There had to be a catch to this.

"How else are you going to eat your food unless your hands are untied?" Jet said disdainfully.

"Oh." Katara said lamely, unable to think of anything else to say as she quickly picked up the plate and a short stick. Jet stood by her with his arms crossed, his foot impatiently tapping the ground rapidly as she ate her meal.

Katara took her own sweet time in eating and the wheels in her brain were turning furiously. She couldn't count on Aang and Sokka rescuing her before she reached where ever Jet was taking her so she would have to escape herself.

_I'm not letting Jet use me as bait, _Katara thought darkly as she finished her last bite of hash.

"Finally," Katara heard Jet mumble under his breath as she set her plate to the side by the log. Jet squatted to tie her hands again but Katara stopped him before he even picked up the rope.

"I have to pee."

"What?" Jet asked, a startled look flashing across his face.

"You heard me," Katara hissed, her eyes darting around to make sure no one else had heard them. Muttering under his breath Jet untied her feet and Katara stood up, hobbling painfully away from the camp sight and towards a thick cluster of green trees that stood out in a place like the badlands.

She had made it past the small cluster of tents when she realized Jet was following her.

"You're coming with me?" Katara asked, startled. She hadn't exactly planned on that…..

"Duh," Jet said scornfully as he walked up beside her. Once she was out of sight from the other soldiers, Katara crossed her arms and turned to Jet.

"Turn around." She said firmly.

"Fine, but I better hear the right noises." Jet snarled, turning on his heel and crossing his arms.

_Darn it! _Katara thought as she turned her back and untied her sash. _So much for that escape plan!_

"I'm ready." Katara said curtly a few minutes later, striding past Jet.

The sun was a small fiery red gold ball in the sky when Katara and Jet reached the tents. Katara hesitated, unsure of which one she was supposed to enter.

"Follow me," Jet said as he walked towards a tent, rolling his eyes as her steps slowed. As Katara stared at Jet's back in deep thought, she decided that she would have to wait in the middle of the afternoon when Jet and the others were still dead asleep to make her escape.

Jet pulled the tent flap open and stepped inside, Katara following him. She immediately started to drag one sleeping bag farther away from the other and then sat down on it.

Jet reached into a bag lying by the door and pulled out a chain with a thin band of iron at each end. Katara's eyes widened.

"What are you doing?" She asked nervously as he glanced up at her, the edges of his mouth twitching. So fast that it startled her Jet grabbed her ankle and snapped the chain on. He then immediately put it on his own ankle and three feet of chain shifted on the ground between them.

Katara stared at her ankle in shock for a couple moments before giving Jet her most hateful glare. Without waiting for a response Katara crawled in the sleeping bag and turned her back to the rebel, squeezing her eyes shut tight as she tried to keep her tears of frustration and fear from flowing down her cheeks.

_It's like he's always two steps ahead of me! _Katara thought bitterly as she waited for sleep to calm her troubled mind.

Her last conscious thought was of her brother and Aang, hoping desperately that they were alive and uninjured.

**Aang and Sokka: **

The late afternoon sun shone on Aang's bald head as he frowned, looking at the ring of stones and ashes in front of him. A short distance away Sokka was peering at the remains of what appeared to be a rabbit, and the deep stake holes punctured in the soft earth.

"Do you think this was his camp?" Aang said, looking down and watching Momo as he curiously sniffed the ashes in the ring of stones.

"Yeah, I think it is." Sokka muttered, walking towards the river. They had come cross the camp after searching the woods for Jet's trail for two hours before they finally found this. This camp was a long distance from their old one, but it was still too close and fresh for it to be mere coincidence.

"Hey, look at this!" Sokka called over his shoulder. Aang ran up beside him and stared at the numerous deep groves that were cut into the river bank.

"What are they?" Aang asked, unsure of what the straight gouges meant.

"Those are the marks canoes made when they were shoved off of the bank."

Sokka said thoughtfully. "They look exactly like the marks my canoe made in the snow."

In unison he and Aang looked down the river as Appa shuffled up behind them after checking out the debris. Momo made a concerned rumbling noise as he hopped onto Aang's shoulder and followed the two boy's gaze.

"He's traveling by the river." Sokka felt that he had to state the obvious.

"But is he going downstream or upstream?" Aang asked, his eyebrows drawing together slightly. "You can't tell the difference." After contemplating for a few moments, Sokka pointed downriver, away from the Ice Mountains.

"My vote is that he went downstream. Why would he want to backtrack upriver?"

Aang shrugged. "I don't know. But what if we're wrong?"

Sokka frowned in thought.

"I know!" He exclaimed so suddenly that Momo gave a surprised squeak and leapt onto the ground. "We'll travel downriver for a couple days and if we can't find any sign of a camp, we'll turn around."

Aang subconsciously rubbed the back of his head with his good arm.

If they were wrong, they would lose a lot of valuable time. But he couldn't think of any reason to oppose Sokka's reasoning so he said, "Okay. Let's get going."

Eager to begin the hunt Sokka immediately scrambled up on Appa and then offered Aang a hand up, careful to avoid the sling his hurt arm was in. Aang gave a small smile and shook his head before air bending himself into the saddle.

Aang settled back against the side of Appa's saddle while Sokka picked up the reins. (Aang's arm was in a homemade splint so he couldn't control the reins with only one hand)

"Appa, yip yip!" Sokka commanded, flapping the reins.

Momo immediately scrambled up with a handful of red berries before the bison left the ground with a low grunt.

**Jet:**

Jet's eyes opened with a snap when he heard someone say his name. Automatically grabbing his swords Jet sat up and looked at the tent door. The flap was open and afternoon sunlight poured in around Makoto's head, his light brown eyes hard and the expression on his face was grim as it always was.

"Jet, I need to talk to you." He said firmly, jerking his head over his shoulder making his top knot bounce.

Jet set down his swords, leaned over his ankle and then took am iron key out of seemingly nowhere and opened the chain with a snap. Jet stood up, his ankle free of Katara. Jet sheathed his swords as Makoto's head disappeared from the doorway; and before exiting he glared suspiciously at the girl, but she was fast asleep as far as he could tell. Jet walked through and closed the tent door and stood in front of it so that Katara wouldn't try to escape.

"What is it?" He asked impatiently, miffed that his sleep was interrupted.

"The mountain guide has disappeared." Jet swore under his breath.

"Is that it?" He asked as Makoto paused, narrowing his eyes.

"No. How are you going to lure the Avatar after us without him catching up before we reach the fortress?" He demanded.

"Simple." Jet said calmly. He had given a thought of lot to this the first time they had crossed over the Ice Mountains. "We haven't seen any sign of him. The Avatar's arm is burned and probably broken, and the Water Tribe brat he was traveling with is probably nothing more then a burned corpse. In short he's tracking us slowly. All we have to do is make it obvious we camped here," Jet waved an arm in general to the campsite, "And he'll follow our trail. To seal the matter we'll send a flare off at the top of the mountain."

The whole time Jet had described his plan Makoto had listened with a scowl on his face and finally put in his two cents.

"A flare? Are you (beeping) mad? We'll be traveling on foot and he'll be in the air!"

"Yes, but if we see him coming we just hide in one of the caves until he leaves. Once we reach the other side of the mountains and all we have to do is leave a trail and then arrive at the fortress."

Makoto rolled his eyes. "That's a stupid plan."

Jet glared at him and bit the stalk of grass in his mouth forcefully. "Do _you_ have a better plan?" He replied angrily. "The Avatar couldn't possibly track us over the mountains and then he would lose our trail."

Makoto's sullen silence was all the answer he needed.

"I'm going back to bed. We leave at dusk." Jet said over his shoulder as he disappeared into the tent. As he came in the tent he met Katara's angry ocean blue eyes. She must have overheard him and Makoto. Jet smirked at her as he snapped the chain back in place.

"I suggest you get your sleep," He said sweetly. "You'll need it."

**Aang and Sokka: **

Aang bit his lip as he peered over Appa's saddle.

"Sokka, I think we went the wrong way." Aang said panic laced throughout his voice. They had been traveling for a day and a half and hadn't seen a sign of any human activity.

"Then they must be heading upriver." Sokka said grimly and turned Appa around with a quick jerk of the reins. Aang fought the sick feeling in his stomach and shifted his body so that his bandaged arm was in a more comfortable position. Aang glanced at Sokka.

The older boy's face was calm and his eyes were serene as he urged Appa to fly as fast as he could. Aang looked closer and saw that Sokka was gripping the reins so tight that his knuckles were white and that his face was pale under his tanned skin.

Appa flew a little higher so that he was almost level with the tree tops of the forest. Neither boy spoke as the river flashed underneath them.

As he stared ahead Aang struggled to hold onto his hope. They had lost even more time and now Katara could be hundreds of miles away. But they would find her. They couldn't give up.

As if he was reading Aang's thoughts Sokka muttered:

"Don't worry Aang. I won't leave my sister in the hands of that monster."

**Katara: **

Katara shivered and wished she had her warm furs with her instead of the over sized winter jacket Jet had given to her.

The freezing cold wind blew into their faces and whipped the powdery snow up in the air so that it was becoming difficult to see.

The Ice Mountains had large deep snow banks left over from the last storm and soon Katara walked behind half of the fire benders because they would melt the snow.

As the water rushed down the slope Katara parted it so that it wouldn't drench her already numb-with-cold feet.

Jet was marching up at the front, hollering for them to speed it up.

Katara scowled and jogged to keep up with the fire benders. After leaving the camp a day and a half ago they had reached the Ice Mountains and, leaving the canoes at the bottom of the mountain, already made it half way up one side of the steep slope.

It was in the middle of the afternoon but Katara felt like she had been up for days and days…she was tempted to just sit down and rest for a while and let the troop go without her. But she wasn't _that_ stupid.

Katara's legs screamed at her in pain and her cheeks stung every time the wind blew in her face which was constant. Katara took deep breaths as she pushed herself up the mountain, relieved that Jet had left her hands unbound.

Gradually, the peak of the mountain came into view after a couple more hours' labor, after which Katara felt like she was going to die.

_I thought I was in better shape then this, _Katara thought in dismay as she shoved a persistent strand of dark brown hair out of her face. Katara had made her way up to the front of the line where Jet was. The teen was scowling and whipping his head in every direction, determined to find the right way across.

"Do you know where you're going?" Katara demanded as she glanced at the sun.

"Yeah, do you?" Another soldier echoed, giving Jet a distrustful look.

Jet spun on his heel and leaned in towards Katara, invading her personal space and making her swallow hard when she saw his angry eyes.

"I _know_ where I'm going," Jet snapped. As he straightened Katara scuttled back a few feet. _Jerk! Pervert! Maniac! _Katara yelled in her mind, wishing she had the energy to stomp her feet.

"We'll make a camp in that shallow cave up there," Jet called, pointing ahead to a barely visible cave.

**The Next Morning:**

Katara rolled her shoulder muscles under the weight of the bag she was carrying. What did Jet put in this? Rocks?

Katara glance up at the early morning sun and for the briefest of moments admired how blue the sky was…at least the weather had improved.

You'd think nice weather would make a person happy but Jet's eyes looked like storm clouds as he shouted for them to get their sorry butts in gear and hurry it up. Katara bent her head and looked at the snow covered ground, willing her tired body to take another step.

She was so tired….you didn't get much sleep when you shared a tent with a possibly insane teenage boy…..

"We're almost at the top," Katara heard someone mutter in relief. Katara glanced up and saw the crest of the mountain nearby. Just over that hill…..why did it have to be so steep?

Katara stood up straighter as she remembered that Raidon's cabin was located on the level pass between the mountains they were heading for. Katara gave a gusty sigh though when she glanced at the Fire Nation soldiers surrounding her.

Raidon couldn't help her _at all_.

Katara began breathing harder as her pack pulled down on her shoulders as the company neared the crest. Her back was killing her and Katara felt ready to scream her head off for a break by the time she finally reached the top.

The soldiers milled around and looked out over the badlands, taking a short rest as Jet and some fire bender with light brown eyes were busy having a whispered argument judging by their furious expressions.

Katara slid the pack off of her shoulders and sat down heavily, oblivious to the wet snow under her. With a soft sigh Katara looked out over the badlands.

Still no sign of Aang and Sokka—_what was that?_

Katara breathed in sharply and leaned forward, straining her eyes.

Was that Appa in the far distance? Oh please let it be them, not some cloud….

Katara scrambled to her feet when Jet walked towards her, a triumphant smirk on his face. Ignoring Katara He grabbed her pack and then turned to the group of fire benders.

"Go over by that cabin and stand by it!" He barked, untying the ends of the pack.

Katara glanced over her shoulder and saw Raidon's cabin a short distance away.

Slow, thick grey smoke came out of the chimney and for a moment Katara thought about how home-like the sight was before Jet snarled at her to get moving. Glaring at Jet, who was placing a series of sticks into the snow, Katara took her own sweet time in walking to the cabin.

As she came closer to the cabin Katara looked back to see what Jet was doing.

He had stopped putting sticks in the ground and grabbed the pack, and then ran back a ways before nodding to the stern faced fire bender he had been arguing with earlier.

Curious, Katara stopped walking and watched as the fire bender shot a plume of flame towards the sticks and then ran back a distance.

**_BOOOOOOOOM!_**

Katara watched in startled surprise as six fire rockets flew high into the high until they looked like dots. For a millisecond Katara thought they had disappeared when they erupted in showers of red with a high pitched rumble that echoed off of the mountain side and throughout the entire valley below them, creating a very loud exploding noise.

The ruckus continued for another minute before it ended abruptly.

Katara stared at Jet, her ears still ringing from the flares.

_Of course_ she should have recognized he was setting up flares, she had heard him planning it last night for cryin' out loud!

The cold must be affecting her brain.

The sudden stunned quiet after the fireworks was shattered by the cabin door flying open so hard that it slammed onto the side of the house.

"What the—?" A gray haired, blue eyed man roared, his face showing how irate he was. He froze and his jaw dropped when he saw the fire benders a stone's throw from his house. His eyes turned from the soldiers to Jet and Katara and his blue eyes widened even more.  
Jet had turned around when he heard the man slam the door open and glared at Raidon with all the love a predator would have for its prey.

Acting quickly Jet took a step forward and Raidon slammed the door shut so hard that a chunk of snow fell off its roof. A discernable _thunk_ signaled that Raidon had blocked his door. Katara looked at the single window where she saw the old mans frightened and angry face before Jet shoved her forward, causing her to stumble and almost fall face first into the snow.

"LET'S MOVE!" Jet barked.

He walked right behind Katara so that she was forced to keep up with the group as they hurried towards a rift in the mountain wall.

Amidst the scurrying and vulgar talk of the tired soldiers, Katara glanced over her shoulder in time to catch a glimpse of the badlands and the forest before disappearing around the corner.

Would Sokka and Aang take the bait and follow her?

Katara bit her lip.

She suddenly hoped they didn't because if they did, they'd be playing right into Jet's hands and get captured just like her. Even if it meant torture at Jet's hands, Katara still hoped they wouldn't follow her. She couldn't stand losing them; if they tried to rescue her and failed, she and Sokka could be separated and sold as slaves while Aang was sent to the Fire Lord. If the world was to survive Aang couldn't be captured on her account.

Katara blinked hard as a single tear escaped down her cheek.

**Aang and Sokka: **

"It's so obvious he wants us to follow him." Aang muttered as he and Sokka stood by the camp debris by the river. Sokka gave a frustrated sigh.

"He's got a big head start." Sokka said bitterly. "We shouldn't have gone downstream."

"It can't be helped now." Aang said shortly, clenching his teeth together as his arm throbbed. _Ouch that hurts…._Sokka glanced at Aang's pale face as he kicked aside a stone.

"Is your arm hurting?" He asked, looking up at the Ice Mountains.

"Yes."

At the catch in Aang's voice Sokka glanced over his shoulder again and got the Avatar's frustrated and pain filled expression as he winced and looked at the ashes in the dusty ring of stones.

Suddenly the morning air was split by a loud **_BOOOOM!_**

It was followed with a series of small explosions. Startled Sokka and Aang jumped and saw the exploding lights at the crest of the Ice Mountains. After the fire works finally died down and the ringing left their ears, Sokka and Aang exchanged glances.

"That was the signal Jet talked about…" Aang said quietly, letting his voice trail off.

"If he wants us to follow him," Sokka said resolutely as he walked towards Appa, "Then we will. Aang, we'll be walking into a trap, so be ready." Aang nodded even though Sokka's back was towards him.

As he scrambled aboard Appa and the bison took off, Aang closed his eyes and tried to calm his frantic heart beat.

_We'll find her. We'll save her. _

_I won't let him hurt her._

_But what if he already has? _

_What if I can't fight with my arm and then I fail everyone again?_

_What if I fail and Katara and Sokka get hurt—? _

The thoughts swarmed through Aang's head as the wind howled by his ears.

Aang took another deep breath and focused his attention away from the pain, blocking out all his negative thoughts. He could worry about those things later.

Now, he had to worry about being ready to rescue her.

_We'll find her. We'll save her. _

Aang repeated to himself as they flew through the sky, over the lands they had already traveled and towards a mountain range they knew all too well.

_We'll find her. We'll save her. _

**Author Notes:**

Not much of a cliff hanger but oh well…..

So, how was this people? MUST HAVE FEEDBACK! It's the ONLY thing that keeps me writing every day! Puh_LEEZE_ review!

In other words, if I stay up until 12 am for two nights in a row working on this YOU HAD BETTER REVIEW THIS CHAPTER!

I have a couple remarks I'd like to make again…1) The stories about people here being hurtled into "Avatar land" are getting old—except for "Everyone Else Is Doing It" By Lin13. (Smile) seriously, I bet I'd know the entire plot after reading the first chapter. 2) Do you realize that more then half of the Zutara fics have Katara getting kidnapped? Gaugh, play a new tune already! At least Kataang isn't like that. It differs from author to author. 3) Another remark about Zutara…have you noticed the ones with Z & K getting hit by Cupid? Do you realize that the author probably couldn't come up with a reason for them to love each other without making it OOC so he/she decides to have an "outside" force interfere? The one by Khazia is funny but the others are, like…not.

One other thing I noticed…in the opening sequence for Avatar ("Water" "Earth" "Fire" "Air" Long ago…) For a split second on "Fire" you see the person's hair style.

Is it just me, or did it look _exactly like the hair style _Zula_ wore in The Storm? _Remember, watch my profile for tabs on the upcoming chapter, of which I hope to have out no later then one week.

NEXT ISSUE:

Chapter Seven:

Rescue


	8. Rescue

**THIS CHAPTER WAS EDITED AS OF 1/19/06 **

**Author Notes naturally; it's always at the beginning!**

**This chapter has had some minor editing done to it **

Okay, sorry for the long holdup! My reason is this….when it was time for my weekly update I wasn't ready because, having suffered from mild writer's block and school, I was still only on page eight. Then, I had this break through and got up to page ten when Word had to close….so I reopened it…..and the program was lock so I couldn't write until I reinstalled Word. It would have been simple to just reinstall it then, but the CD was missing! So, four days later I FINALLY find it and reinstall it. So I go back in, and my story is still at page ten. I had to make a; 'beware irate writer at work do not disturb' sign and lock myself in my room for two hours a day until yesterday, when I finally finished. So FYI, this chapter is not at its full potential because I couldn't take half the time I wanted to edit. -- SO BE HAPPY!

**And, I'm not sure if Fire Nation fortresses are made of metal or not so just bear with me on that…..same thing with the drains and windows. And I'm sorry, I've been calling Jet's swords 'butterfly knifes' when their _actually_ Twin Tiger Swords. Sorry about that! **I would like to go off raving about the finale but since you've probably already seen it and know how incredibly awesome it is, I'll just say that it was one of the best TV how finales I have ever seen! And the whole reason I brought up seeing Zula in the opening sequence is because haven't you noticed that _Pakku _was the guy doing water bending, and he ended up teaching on so here's my train of thought…._Are they trying to give us the impression that **ZULA **(gag) is going to teach Aang fire bending! _Eh, I might be over reacting, so please forgive my drama. For this chapter I'm going to individually reply using that new thingamabob fanfic has and to the people not signed in, thanks for reviewing! So FYI if ya want a response you have to sign in. Because I don't know about you guys but I've heard that some people are getting two week account suspensions for not following the rules so….yeah. o0 And forgive me, the chapter starts out slow but it all speeds up in the end….. ;)

**Jalapeno1011: **:p yea, that would have been funny; but seriously, I don't think any one would like a lump on the back of their head and a head ache for a couple days—but there IS something like that in this chapter….;)

**KimchiCrusader: **I like Jet's strategically side too, although its pretty hard to do because I basically have to develop the ones he talks about and I can't afford any weakness!

Um, the endurance….gee, maybe make a little more apparent that its telling on him but he IS a LOT more driven then the men he travels with. And Aang puts a lot of responsibility on his shoulders for sure!

**Mysterioso: **Thank you so much! You put a huge smile on my face!

**Titan wolf: **I think you've reviewed on almost every single chapter! THANK YOU. Okay, to ur review now; YEAH, IT WAS A LONG ONE! Yea, I've seen Yep, Finding Nemo and the comparison made me laugh storyalmost every single Zutara does….but I have seen a couple good ones that every one's IC. (in character) Oh my gosh, I LOVED that episode so much too!

**Sasscreech: **Ostriches and Flamingoes? LOL! Sorry dude, this is another cliffy (mwuahahaha!) and I'm glad you enjoyed last chapter!

**Mystic Waterbender3: **Eh, THIS chapter is the longest one ever. Seriously, i'm wondering if its TOO long...thanxk for your comments! Your Zutara quib made me laugh big time! I'm sorry for such a short reply when you gave me such a nice long one but i need to send this chapter in before y Dad yells at me to come and eat!

**CaritaAnn: **…..You like Jet? Don't get me wrong, this guy is fascinating and I love writing him but you like, LIKE him? Sorry if I'm coming across too strong…_sheepish smile_ I'm so glad that this is your favorite story with Jet in it! It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. And whattaya mean 'sorry' for the long review girl? I LOVE LONG REVIEWS! **Jdawg: **YEA! THANK YOU!

**Franny: **Yum, another juicy long review hahaha! You are so nice-thanks for the compliment on being a good writer! Oh yes….we're approaching the climax here so there's a lot of suspense! And good thing you like cliff hangers, because this chapter has one! _Collective groan from everyone except Franny _

**TheDashLikes: **Hey, nice to hear from you again! Good, interesting, not boring. _Wipes sweat off brow _I am so relieved and pleased that you think this is has original ideas (except for the whole Katara-captured-for-bait subplot that is so common) NOOOO, DON'T STOP REVIEWING! I HAD A VERY GOOD REASON FOR TAKING SO LONG! Thanks for explaining why you took your time in reviewing, I really appreciate it! Naw, you didn't bore to death at all! Trust me; I can relate…._makes sour face_

**Neko-Chan: **A challenger! Oh boy! Naw, seriously I appreciate the bluntness and forced myself not to get offended at the 'seemingly good writing and couldn't get past a simple word' quip. Gosh, that stupid 'flu' mistake! GRRRRR, IT KEEPS GETTING ME IN TROUBLE! Yes, believe it or not (I'm sure you do) someone else already pointed that out to me _nods over at TheDashLikes_ but I've been so busy writing the currant chapters I haven't gone back to edit. But at the very end of the story, I'm going back to take care of things! And I appreciate you pointing out the story layout—as soon as I finished reading it I took care of this chapter's layout! THANKS, I NEEDED THAT! And I apologize to everyone if I came on a little harsh about the whole Zutara thing—there ARE good ones out there and I have read 'Why The Caged Bird Sings' and am enjoying it despite not liking Zutara. And about Zula, I just was too busy thinking about which episode was coming on to really look—but when I finally DID, I almost died. Why? Already told you look at the A/N! And thanks for the well rounded review—meaning thank you for saying 'great job.' Now, is this chapters story layout okay, or does it still need some adjusting? please tell me and I feel flattered that you think I keep Jet in character-he's a toughie since he must have a few screws loose! ;) AND I LOVE LONG REVIEWS!

**Drgnprncss: **Thanks for saying that! Yeah, this fiction is pretty much original except for the whole Jet comes back to get Katara thing….but I DO have a second story brimming up in the back of my mind that is completely original so…(sly grin) keep your eyes peeled and I hope you like this chapter!

Yikes, that took up a lot of space. _dazed, unbelieving expression_

Disclaimer: I, 1bzwriter, under absolutely NO circumstances own Avatar: The Last Air bender—"_Is interrupted from repeated pounding on nearby closet door and a familiar voice shrieking: _"Don't listen to her!" _Cough-_ahem, pay no attention to that….ON WITH THE STORY!

**Chapter Seven**

**Rescue**

Katara glanced sideways at Jet as the company walked down a narrow gorge, the walls of the canyon stretching high above their heads as clumps of snow fell into the canyon every so often. Jet had faint purple smudges under his eyes, and by the stiff way he moved Katara could tell he was tired.

She discreetly looked around at the other soldiers; many of them had their shoulders slumped, shivering slightly as an icy cold wind blew through the gorge. A lot of them had bandages over their eyes, and probably on their heads but their helmets made it hard to tell. Katara looked ahead before anyone noticed her careful glances and she began thinking furiously.

Now would be a good time to escape, when they were tired and the snow slowed them down. But if she ran off, she wouldn't have a fire, or food. Katara bit her lip. She _could_ run back to Raidon's…..if she managed to escape the fire blasts they would send after her. Katara made a sour face. _This is a no-win situation, _she thought bitterly.

Out of the corner of her eye she watched Jet as he walked ahead of her, his face vacant in thought. Suddenly an evil idea popped into Katara's brain and repressing her urge to grin, Katara walked on like everything was normal.

Once Jet was a short distance ahead of her, Katara lifted her hand and then thrust it down, knocking a good sized chunk of snow off of the top of the canyon walls. The glob of snow flew through the air and then landed right on top of Jet.

The rebels howl of rage echoed throughout the canyon as he was knocked to the ground. The Fire Nation men turned around and then burst out laughing when they saw Jet floundering, his arms and legs waving wildly as he tried to get out of the snow pile he was in.

"It's _not_ funny," He hissed through clenched teeth as he struggled to his feet, shivering as he vigorously wiped the snow off his face.

Katara put her hand up to hide her wide grin as she stifled her laughter. Still howling with laughter the men shook their heads and kept walking, leaving Jet behind as he screamed at them to shut up. Stifling another giggle, Katara walked past him, her ice blue eyes shining in silent mirth.

Jet angrily brushed the snow out of his hair and on the top of his shoulders, a scowl on his handsome features.

He stomped after Katara and for a split second Katara wondered if he knew she was the one who dumped the snow on him. But the only recognition Jet gave her was the evil eye as the joined the rest of the soldiers, his movements jerky and somehow Katara got the idea that some of the snow had slipped between his clothes and was making him very uncomfortable…..

Katara let a satisfied smirk slip as they left the canyon and stepped onto a clear, sloping expanse of the snow covered mountainside. Katara looked ahead to the distance and saw a green smudge that must be a forest, then spiky blue shadows that could be anything and in the distant horizon the faint blue-purple ridges that marked the distant mountain ranges.

She had covered this land by air and wasn't sure what to expect once they left the mountains. Katara's chest deflated with a gusty sigh and glanced behind her to look for Appa but the towering peaks blocked her view.

Katara lifted her chin and straightened despite her aching back and then glared at the back of Jet's slightly bowed head.

She wasn't going to lose hope and let him win.

**Aang and Sokka: **

"I really hate these mountains. We've already gone over them once and now we have to do it _again_ and then _again _when we come back with Katara. Its insane!"

Aang gave a small smile as he listened to Sokka's ranting. But he really didn't want to talk right now; his head and arm hurt terribly and so far Aang had managed to keep a straight face and not complain….but he would appreciate a little quiet. Aang noticed Sokka glancing at him again.

"Katara can heal that once we see her again." Sokka assured him. "It'll only be a little longer."

Aang nodded his head slightly and clutched the thin blanket around his shoulders. For once, Sokka was the one trying to be optimistic. The thought made Aang smile again, but it was short lived. Momo ran over to him and dived into his arms, hiding beneath the blanket as he shivered.

"Hey boy," Aang said quietly, dipping his head so that the tips of Momo's fuzzy ears touched his chin. The lemur purred gratefully and tickled Aang's nose with his ears.

"Aang, maybe you should try and get some sleep." Sokka said slowly, as if he afraid he was sounding too much like Katara.

"All right…" Aang said with a sigh. Lying down, with the blanket and Momo's warmth pressed against his chest, Aang fell asleep faster then he thought.

**Jet: **

_Stupid mountains. Stupid girl. Stupid snow. Stupid Fire Nation. Stupid Avatar. Stupid…._Jet continued naming every one and everything with a "stupid" attached to the beginning. Jet stifled a groan as his hamstrings screamed at him in agony as he walked down the mountain.

Ugh. All those days in prison hadn't left him with as much endurance as he thought. He was so tired…..you didn't get much sleep in the same tent with a girl who was out for his throat, more or less since he had attacked her brother and boyfriend and then kidnapped her…. and not to mention he still had to figure out his strategy to manipulate Lazar to do what he wanted him to do…..

Suddenly Jet heard the impact of a bag hit the ground; after a couple paces, Jet glanced back at Katara. "What are you doing?" Jet demanded as he stopped and glared at her. The water bender had planted her feet firmly and was standing with her arms crossed, a pack lying at her feet and a fierce scowl on her face.

"I need a break."

"Suck it up," Jet snarled as his temple throbbed.

"I'm not going _anywhere_ until I've had a rest and a drink of water." Katara said firmly, lifting her chin haughtily. Jet stared at her, incredulous. She thought she could get away like this? Make _him, _her _captor_ submit to _her_ will? Jet frowned and moved forward, intending to fling the insolent girl over his shoulder.

"If you pick me up I swear I'll ice the ground and you can sled down the mountainside instead of walking." Katara threatened, drawing back into the traditional water bending fighting stance. Jet lifted his hand for his Twin Tiger swords when her words hit him and an idea formed in his mind. Katara eyed him warily as he just stared at her, thinking hard. The slope was steep and there were no trees….maybe instead of walking…..Jet looked around but of course there wasn't any slabs of wood to ride on because of there being no trees. "Ice that long strip," Jet said suddenly, making Katara and the fire benders gawk at him. "But you said that if I—"

"Just do it!" Jet snapped, glaring at her.

Scowling Katara did as she was told, although Jet had to leap out of the way to avoid getting his feet frozen to the mountain. Jet glanced down at the strip of ice; it was about four feet wide and went down the mountain for almost a hundred feet. Without warning Jet turned and grabbed the nearest soldier standing next to him and then flung him on the ice.

Yowling like a drenched bearded cat, the man spun in a circle as careened down the mountain side uncontrollably. It got so out of control that the soldier flew off of the ice and into a deep snow bank. The soldiers laughed and the corner of Jet's mouth twitched.

"Bad idea," He muttered to himself with a shrug of his shoulders. Then aloud to the rest of them, "Let's keep moving! We don't want to stay in the open for too long." The soldier that fell in the snow bank was angrily brushing the snow off of him, while shouting curse words at Jet as he walked down the mountainside with the rest of his group, staying clear of the ice path.

**Katara: **

**Two days later: **

With a start, Katara woke up. Blinking hard, she groggily raised her head and listened for the sound that had awoken her. The stuffy tent she was sleeping in was silent, and the only noise from the forest outside was the sound of wind in the trees. Wishing she could rub her eyes, Katara ruefully eyed the thick ropes binding her feet and hands.

Ever since her attempt and near success of escaping at the market place in the village by the Ice Mountains, Jet had taken no chances and had even chained her waist to the tent pole.

_There it was again!_

Katara leaned forward as she listened to the excited whisperings coming from the forest. She heard a bush rattle and then she saw a shadow dart across the side of the tent.

Katara glanced over to Jet's side of the tent and saw his empty sleeping bag.

Katara narrowed her eyes. What was he up to? Wiggling out from under her blankets Katara went to the tent flap. It was ajar and flapping slightly in the wind. Katara made a face at the chain around her waist. She probably could have escaped if it weren't for that stupid chain waiting for her to knock down the tent. Katara poked her head out of the tent, and since her eyes were already adjusted to the darkness she could easily see Jet talking to a person hiding by a tree; Katara could only tell it was a person by his barely visible head that would nod vigorously from time to time. Suddenly the wind shifted and blew in Katara's face, blowing the sound of Jet's words in her ears. "….tell the others I'll be coming soon….okay…..Long shot……."

Katara's eyes widened as the name struck an image in her brain, that of a quiet, serious teenager who always carried a bow and a quiver of arrows by his side. Jet was talking to one of his freedom fighters! Suddenly the figure Jet was talking to disappeared with the rustling of leaves and Jet turned around, jogging back to the tent.

Before Jet could see her head sticking out, Katara dived back into the tent and frantically climbed between her blankets. She tried to slow her breathing down but to her the sound of her breathing echoed painfully loud throughout the small tent. Jet quietly opened the flap and then shut it and then with a glance towards Katara's supposedly sleeping face the rebel pulled his blankets over him with a soft groan.

_Well, no surprise he always looks terrible in the morning, _Katara thought to herself darkly._ He's too busy sneaking around in the dark._

Soon Jet's steady breathing reached her ears but Katara was still wide awake. Thoughts of Aang and Sokka kept crowding her mind. So far there had still been no sign of the Avatar; that was driving Jet more nuts then he already was. Katara could only hope that it meant they were okay but had decided to not take the bait……and not that something….worse…..had happened to keep them from following her. Katara felt her throat tighten at the mere thought.

She took a deep breath and fought down her sudden queasiness. She just had to keep hoping they were okay—Katara started violently when Jet suddenly cut loose a loud, gargling snore.

_I can't believe it, _Katara thought gleefully, _He _actually _snores! _Suddenly Katara's gloating smirk vanished. _Crap. He snores! _Now _how am I supposed to sleep? _Katara glared at Jet's sleeping form as he let loose another monster snore. _He sounds like a choking pig. _Katara thought in disgust as she buried her head under her blanket. If time had seemed to go by slowly before, it seemed to go at the space of a wounded tiger seal now.

Katara moaned….she couldn't relax with him snoring like that! It seemed like he was shaking the walls of the tent! After a very long time (ten minutes could have been an hour for all Katara knew) Katara started to seriously consider knocking down the tent so that it would fall on top of Jet and wake him up. Giving a frustrated sigh after an especially loud snore, Katara inch wormed over to Jet until her mouth was by his ear. She took a deep breath.

"**JET!**"

Jet sat up so fast that his shoulder smacked Katara's nose and she fell back with a yelp. Giving out a short cry of rage Jet grabbed a knife from some where on his person and looked around wildly, his black eyes burning bright in his confusion.

Katara rolled back to her blankets, moaning softly.

"What the heck was that for?_" _Jet asked her angrily, his voice an octave higher then normal.

"You wouldn't shut up and quit snoring." Katara snapped as she reached her blankets.

"I don't snore," Jet scoffed, putting the knife away at his waist line.

"Then what do you call this?" Katara gave a highly exaggerated snore, crossing her eyes and cocking her head to further her point. Jet was livid as he watched Katara struggle to adjust her blanket.

"You woke me up in the middle of the night so that I can listen to your ridiculous lies?" Jet demanded indignantly. "I _don't _snore!"

"Whatever." Katara snapped back, finally giving up and letting the blanket lay at her waist. Katara twitched her nose for feeling as Jet grumbled and lay back down so that his back faced her. Katara turned over immediately so that her back was facing his.

"Good Night," Katara said, her voice dripping with sarcastic sweetness, intent on irritating him after the hours (so she felt) of listening to his snoring.

"_Shut up."_

**The Next Day: **

Katara distrustfully eyed the rhino in front of her. "Get on," Jet said as he mounted, the lizard like beast shifting its weight and swinging its head back and forth violently. Katara planted her feet firmly on the ground beneath her and stuck her tongue out at Jet. She wasn't getting on another rhino; last time she almost rode off of a cliff because the brute wouldn't listen to her! Jet glared at Katara. "_Get on," _He repeated as all of the mounted soldiers snickered. "I don't have time for silly games!"

Katara crossed her arms, thankful that Jet removed her ropes during the day.

"Drop dead," She snarled. Jet leaned over and grabbed Katara's shoulder and hauled her up as she protested loudly. With one quick movement he seated her in front of him.

Katara felt herself go stiff as Jet reached around her to grab a hold of the reins. Jet spurred the rhino on and Katara clenched her teeth at the surprising speed the bulky animal had.

_It could have a little more grace though._ Katara thought irritably as she was bounced up and down hard on the saddle, each time she bounced down hitting her tail bone.

After a couple hours of torture, after which Katara felt she could never sit down again, they passed out of the forest and onto the top of a large hill.

Once everyone had reached the crest, they stopped and looked ahead, their faces grave. Katara followed their gaze, half expecting to see some symbol of doom by the expression on Jet's face.

In between two very tall, barren mountains was a fortress made of metal, and from what she could see, it had two gates until it reached the center, where a tall tower was raised above the walls, covered with spiky battle works, everything a gruesome black.

Katara's heart sank. _I wasn't too far off in thinking it must be a symbol of doom._ _This must be the place Jet is taking me._

The soldiers were sighing in relief and were clearly ready to go ahead, but Jet turned his excited rhino's head away from the fort. "We'll camp by the forest tonight." He said calmly as he rode past the fire benders.  
"_What?" _They shouted indignantly.

"You can't be serious!" Makoto said angrily, reining his own rhino around sharply.

"If you don't want to stay then go back to your leader and tell him you left me alone in the woods with his bait. I'm sure he'll be really pleased to see you." Jet said sarcastically as he dismounted, followed by a trembling Katara who gasped as her legs touched the ground.

Katara groaned. Her poor legs! She could never walk again….

At the sound of tramping feet Katara glanced over her shoulder as Jet tied the rhino up and started to pitch a tent. The fire benders were exchanging glances and looked at their leader, which Katara had assumed was the light brown eyed soldier who hated Jet and was called 'Makoto'.

That same fire bender was beet red, his left eye twitching as he clenched his fists together. Katara made sure to get out of his way as he and the others rode down from the hill, all of them clearly livid.

Katara made sure to keep a distance between her and them and was grateful that she did when they lit their fires a little too enthusiastically for comfort. Jet kneeled by one of his bags and grabbed the crude paper and pen he had bought at the Ice Mountain village. He grabbed Katara's hand and dragged her inside the tent with him.

"Sit," he ordered, pointing to her blankets he had thrown inside. Scowling, Katara did as she was told, although she made a point of "accidentally" stepping her muddy feet on Jet's pillow as his back was turned, busily writing something on the crude parchment.

Katara quickly grew antsy as she sat there, listening to the angry, dangerous mutterings of the soldiers as they walked by the stuffy tent. Jet seemed to remain oblivious to them, and continued writing his letter. Katara drummed her fingers on her knee. She examined her nails. And then she tugged at her braid while glaring at Jet's back.

"Are you almost done?" Katara asked in exasperation; she was thoroughly bored out of her mind, sitting there in the hot tent for a half an hour or so.

Jet gave her the evil eye as he rolled up the parchment and tied it with a piece of twine. "Be quiet," He snapped as he went out of the tent, "and stay in there."

Katara crossed her arms and listened as Jet instructed one of the soldiers to take the parchment to the fort and give it to Captain Lazar.

XXX

Messages were exchanged with this Captain Lazar and Jet for the rest of the afternoon, and judging by the scowls on Jet's face and the furious way he wrote his answers, Katara came to the conclusion he was negotiating a deal. Evening had come by the time Jet received his last letter and by then Katara had fallen asleep. She was shaken awake by Jet, who had a smug expression in his eyes. "Get up," He said sternly. Rolling her eyes, Katara stood up. That was about all he said to her; that along with: "shut up" "be quiet" "sit" "stay there"…….

Jet grabbed her hand, jolting her out of her thoughts and dragged her outside, where the other soldiers were busily breaking down tents.

"Break down the tent while I get our rhino." Jet ordered the smug gleam in his eyes still apparent as he walked away to the tied rhinos.

Katara mimicked his words with a wildly outrageous expression, and the soldier walking by saw her and snickered. Katara turned around and looked the tent over, before just deciding to pull the chain still attached around the center pole.

The tent came down with a crash, and Katara calmly pried the stakes out of the ground, and once that was done she dragged the blankets out and put them in the large bag by her.

After messily cramming the tent in the bag Katara stood up and started dragging the bag through the dust and she just _might_ have accidentally dragged it through some animal droppings….

Throwing the bag down with the other tent bags piled by the rhinos, Katara glanced at the large hill in front of her. Katara got a bad taste in her mouth when she thought of what might happen to her because she knew Aang.

Katara glanced back at the forest, her face sad and grave. Absently she looked up into the trees and then started violently, color rushing to her cheeks.

Was it her imagination, or was that _Momo_ staring out at her, with his large ears perked as he watched her? She remained oblivious to the mounting soldiers around her until one of the more spiteful ones shoved her out of his way and she fell down to the ground.

Katara winced as a rock dug into her hip and she slowly pushed herself back up, looking back up in the tree tops hopefully.

But Momo, if it had been Momo, was gone, and not even the rustle of leaves showed he had even been there. Katara bowed her head and studied the ground in front of her, keeping her eyes on the tiny clover and thin wisps of grass, determined not to show her mounting despair to anyone.

"What are you doing? We're ready to go!"

Wordlessly, Katara rose to her feet and avoided meeting Jet's eyes as she climbed up the snarling rhino. Katara was forced to hold onto Jet's waist as he spurred the rhino ahead, its gait choppy and yet still speedy at the same time. The rhinos made short work of the hill and Katara slowly raised her ocean blue eyes to look at the intimidating tower ahead of her.

Katara felt a cold sweat form on her brow as the rhino's galloped down the slope, their riders urging them to hurry. The gate was black and spiked at the top, and men in uniform patrolled the wall, looking down curiously as the rhinos approached the gate. A couple of the men on the wall shouted to open the gate, and Katara watched with growing dread as the gate slowly swung open to greet the returning company.

Jet was at the head of the group so he and Katara rode in first, followed closely by the browned eyed soldier Jet argued with all the time. With all of her heart, Katara wanted to jump off the rhino and bolt out of the closing gate and back to the woods and freedom. The rhinos shuffled to a halt, pulling against their bits as their riders restrained them; Katara winced as the gate shut with a loud metallic clang. She swallowed hard and looked ahead as Jet argued with the gate man to let them into the courtyard.

The rhinos lurched forward as soon as the gate opened enough to let them by.

Katara noticed the thickness of the gate as they rode into the courtyard, where standing on the large shallow steps up to the tower was a tall man wearing Fire Nation armor, his hands folded in front of his chest, an ugly smile on his pale face. Katara hated him on the spot as he swaggered down the steps towards Jet and herself.

The fire benders had dismounted and stable hands had come forward to take the rhinos away. Katara took the opportunity to glare daggers at the approaching man as Jet dismounted from the rhino. Katara immediately jumped off, eager to get off the over excited animal.

"So Jet, is this the girl?" The man said, leaning forward and lifting Katara's chin up. "No wonder the Avatar has a crush on her, she's—"

Katara's blue eyes blazed and she jerked her head away and nearly bit the man's finger off, but his reflexes were too fast for her.

The self satisfied smirk on his face disappeared as he scowled at Katara, leaning back a little. "You little viper," He hissed angrily. Katara stuck her tongue out at him, her cheeks flushed from the comment on being called 'the Avatar's crush.' His attention turned away from her to Jet, who had his arms crossed as he watched the whole exchange with piercing black eyes.

"You're sure the Avatar will come for her?" The man demanded.

Jet's feigned bored expression never changed. "Lazar, the Avatar wouldn't leave his companion in the hands of the Fire Nation, let alone a girl he likes."

_Since when do you know Aang so darn well? _Katara thought darkly as she crossed her arms, frowning. Captain Lazar nodded, seeming to accept Jet's words. "Jet, would you please show this lovely young lady her chambers—" His voice dripped with sarcasm—"I'm sure you know where the prison cells are." He gave Jet a toothy grin.

Jet glared at him, and Katara noted the intense hatred suddenly shining in his eyes. If the captain noticed he didn't show it because he simply kept smiling until Jet grabbed Katara's forearm in a bruising grip and stormed ahead to the tower.

Jet didn't give the guards posted at the door a glance as he vehemently kicked the door open, causing it to swing back and hit another soldier in the nose.

Katara stared at the man's bleeding nose with wide eyes as Jet dragged her ahead, not even pausing to look at the soldier groaning on the floor. The men walking down the halls made a point to get out of Jet's way as he charged down the halls, sometimes tripping fire benders entirely on purpose.

Jet was walking so fast that Katara had to half jog to keep up with him, sometimes having to skip two steps at a time when Jet took her down stairs and then skid around corners.

_He's this upset over one snooty comment? _Katara thought as she winced at Jet's crushing grip. Katara began breathing hard as Jet took her farther into the tower, up and then down stairs, around halls and through so many doors that Katara lost count and totally lost her sense of direction.

The halls were lit with torches attached to brackets, and sent spooky shadows lurking around the corners and sharp edges of the halls. Katara struggled to keep up with Jet as he raced down a long stair. Her legs were screaming in agony as she skipped three steps to keep up with Jet's long legs.

Suddenly an unpleasant smell reached Katara's nose, like dirty water, unwashed bodies and mold. Katara wrinkled her nose in disgust as they came out into a long hall way that led up to an iron door. Jet came to such a sudden stop that Katara crashed into his back.

"I have a prisoner here," Jet said, gesturing to Katara with his free hand as the guards of the door studied her closely. Katara's skin crawled as she stared at the masked face of one Fire Nation guard. After a couple more seconds of staring at Katara he gave a curt nod and unlocked the door with a long iron key.

The smell became stronger as he opened the door and wasted no time in dragging her inside. Katara glanced at the row of cells, every one in four containing a bedraggled prisoner.

Katara felt sick when she saw a little five year old girl quietly crying on the shoulder of her slightly older brother, both huddled in the corner of the cell. Katara caught a glimpse of their soiled green clothing before Jet pulled her farther down the hall.

To Katara the hall seemed a mile long because of the hopeless, hollow faces that looked up at her as she and Jet passed. Finally they reached the end of the hall and turned around a sharp left hand corner to be met with more cells.

But instead of little square areas with rusting bars, these cells had iron doors and through a small window in the doors Katara saw a large room lined with a couple candles; and in between two iron posts stood the chained prisoner with his head bowed. Katara swallowed hard as she noticed this in a matter of seconds while Jet pulled her down the hall until he reached the fourth one on the right and pushed her inside.

Katara stumbled and barely managed to keep her balance by waving her arms wildly. The cell door slammed shut and she turned around to glare at Jet as he walked away.

Her breath caught in her throat and she clenched her fists together when she saw Jet leaning against the closed cell door, his arms crossed and an evil smile on his face.

**Aang and Sokka: **

"Momo!" Aang called, looking behind a large moss-covered tree and then up into its leaves. "Momo, come here!" Aang glanced over his shoulder at Sokka who was putting the fire out with some dirt. "Sokka, have you seen Momo?"

"Nope," Sokka said absently, his eyes intent on the ground to make sure he had put out the fire.

Frowning, Aang walked a little farther ahead and began yelling louder for Momo. "Aang, don't yell so loud! We're pretty close to Jet's camp and I don't want him to know we're following him." Sokka said sternly as he stepped out of the ring, brushing the ashes off his shoes.

Aang sighed and looked back up at the trees, before turning away to walk back to Sokka; he hadn't taken five steps when Momo suddenly came running through the grass with his ears pulled back. "Momo, there you are!" Aang said in delight as he turned around and opened his arms to hug the furry creature.

With a chirrup Momo climbed onto Aang's good arm and looked back at Sokka who had come up beside them.

"Aang I'm going to go see what's going on at Jet's camp and I want you to stay here." He said firmly, checking his boomerang over before sheathing it.

"Why?" Aang asked, frowning slightly.

"I need you to stay here in case…something happens." Sokka answered, avoiding Aang's gaze as he started edging away. Aang's mouth formed a silent "oh" as he understood. Sokka wanted him to stay here so that if he got captured, Aang could get help. "Okay." Aang said a little sadly, stroking Momo's fur absently with his hand was the lemur perched on his shoulder.

Sokka glanced up and gave Aang a quick nod before disappearing into the forest, leaving Aang alone with Appa and Momo. Giving a huge sigh Aang slowly walked over to where Appa was dozing, their supplies packed and ready to go on the saddle. "I guess its just us for a while guys," Aang said softly as he sat down next to Appa to wait for Sokka.

**Sokka: **

As the sounds of crashing tent poles, snarling rhinos, and the loud voices of the Fire Nation soldiers grew louder, Sokka slowed down, moving at a snail's space. His navy blue eyes constantly flickered to the ground to make sure he wasn't stepping on dead branches and then up ahead to see how far away Jet's camp was. Sokka tried to calm his pounding heart and quiet his breathing as he crouched and began creeping forward, his eyes intent and every muscle coiled to be ready for anything.

As the vague colors of red and black began to show through the green leaves and tree branches, Sokka forgot to avoid the dead sticks littering the forest floor and stepped on one, the nose causing Sokka's face to pale as the sound seemed to vibrate the air.

Suddenly keenly aware of his need to relieve himself Sokka gritted his teeth and bent low to the ground, envisioning the torture he would receive if the soldiers found him. Sokka found his breathing to be uncomfortably loud and painful as he strained his eyes for any sign of approaching fire benders.

When the seconds ticked by and the noise of the campsite never died down or wavered Sokka dared to start moving again, although this time carefully avoiding the smallest twig he came across. The leaves of the bushes brushed against his blue clothing as he walked closer towards the campsite, his hand clutching his club as well as he could with his still swollen fingers.

Narrowing his eyes Sokka forced his mind off his pressing need to go as the outlines of Fire Nation men and Komodo rhinos began to come into focus. Feeling thankful that it was twilight and that the dying light would make it harder to see him, Sokka crouched behind a old, towering oak tree and peered through the branches of the large bush hiding him from sight. His eyes narrowed even further as he quickly took in the scene of the steam rising from the ash-filled hole in the ground, pack covered Komodo Rhinos and the men mounted on them.

Whatever the signal was Sokka missed it as they suddenly spurred their creatures and bounded up the hill in a flurry of motion and waving tails. Sokka wildly looked at all of the riders as they thundered past him and up the big hill, their eyes intent on the approaching canyon ahead of them.

Sokka caught a glimpse of a blue clad girl, with her braid flying and her ocean blue eyes focused ahead sitting behind a teenage boy with bushy brown hair and a stalk of grass in the corner of his mouth. One moment they were there, and the next the last of the rhino's long tails was disappearing over the hill.

Sokka stayed frozen in place for about ten seconds, listening to the faint thud of the rhino's feet on the ground before bolting upright and racing through the forest, crashing through bushes, slapping aside over hanging branches and vines, leaping over small, decaying logs and darting around trees back to where he had left Aang.

Their plan to wait until nightfall to rescue Katara was ruined since Jet had for some reason insisted to move camp—they had just now finally caught up with them and Jet was already moving again!

Sokka bit down his irritation and forgot about all of his discomforts as his thoughts focused on his baby sister. _I won't let her down, _Sokka vowed just as he caught sight of Appa before bursting out of the underbrush and running towards Aang.

The air bender immediately jumped to his feet, causing Momo to crash to the ground. He gave a surprised hiss but Aang was too preoccupied to apologize as Sokka bent over leaning on his knees, gasping for breath.

"Need…to…go…" He wheezed, still panting from his mad dash. "Jet moved camp…. and they were….they were traveling south over that huge hill and towards the canyons." Sokka finished with a gasp, trying to choke the words out while attempting to catch his breath. Aang's eyes immediately widened and he gasped. "Sokka…" He said weakly, staring bleakly at the panting teenager, "There's…a fortress over the hill." Sokka paused, and stared at Aang incredulously. "What?" He said flatly, his face completely blank. Aang's miserable face was all the answer Sokka needed.

"I saw it before we landed earlier today." The twelve year old boy admitted softly. Sokka suddenly muttered a swear word, causing Aang to look at him in surprise as Sokka stormed past him and climbed up Appa, who was peacefully chewing on a small bush.

Sokka climbed onto Appa's head, his navy blue eyes dark and stormy as he gripped Appa's reins until his knuckles turned white. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Aang settle back against Appa's saddle. "Yip yip," Sokka said tersely as twilight started to give way to the blackness of the night, cloaking them in semi darkness while they soared into the sky.

XXX

"I want you to set out the bare minimum of your guards patrolling the grounds tonight," Captain Lazar said coldly to the officer walking with him as he made his way to the prison cells.

The officer's dark eyes widened in surprise. "Sir, I thought the Ava—"

"We need to lull him into a false sense of security," Captain Lazar interrupted, giving the young man a withering glare. "Have your men on stand by—once he's broken into the prison cells looking for his little friend, we'll surround him."

"Sir, what if he doesn't come? Do w—"

"Oh he'll come all right. You can be sure of that."

XXX

The moon was hidden behind thick, gray clouds, and with no wind and only the soft, barely discernable foot steps of the soldiers on the walls echoing off the mountain side, the night world so quiet it seemed as if it was holding its breath. Aang soberly looked at the large fortress; it was positioned right between two very tall mountains, adding to the intimidation of the iron spiked battle house. Aang swallowed thickly as Sokka discreetly flew Appa as close to the mountain side as he dared.

Aang heard Sokka mutter "yip yip" and soon Appa was coming in for a landing half way down the mountainside of the left hand mountain. With a low grumble, the bison landed on the rocky terrain of the mountain. Aang immediately slid down Appa, using his air bending to keep himself balanced as he skidded a short ways on the shale covered mountainside.

"Careful," Aang warned Sokka as the Water Tribe boy climbed down from Appa, clutching his club. The boy managed to keep his footing as he walked down to where Aang was half crouching behind a large boulder, Momo on his shoulder with his tail curled around the air benders shoulder.

Lowering himself close to the ground, Sokka peeked over the rock formation with narrowed eyes at the tower about one hundred feet below them. "So what's the plan?" He muttered keeping his eyes trained on the guards patrolling the outer wall. "Um….." Aang said awkwardly, "Well….uh…..I'm not exactly sure…."

"You don't have a plan?" Sokka demanded, glancing at Aang out of the corner of his eye. Aang resisted the urge to snap at Sokka's incredulous tone of voice.

"No." He said blankly, his face settling into a slight scowl. Sokka sighed heavily and somehow that annoyed Aang. "We need a plan." He stated, still avoiding the monk's gaze. "Thank you captain obvious," Aang hissed, causing Momo to tilt his head and chirp inquiringly at the young boy.

"How are we supposed to find Katara in that tower?" Sokka muttered after giving Aang a sharp glance.

"I don't know," Aang admitted after a brief pause, struggling to hold onto his hope. Sokka had no response to that, and they sat there in a heavy, oppressing silence. Aang took a deep breath and pushed aside his negative feelings and concentrated on how to enter the tower and get past the two outer walls. His eye brows came together slightly as he thought of where Katara could possibly be in that huge four story tower.

"I think we might want to try the basement level of the tower for prisoners." Aang said at last. Sokka started in surprise and then looked over at Aang.

"What makes you say that?" He asked curiously. Aang's eyes never left the building below him.

"It's just a guess; I mean, from the top half way down to the bottom are windows. I don't think the Fire Nation would put windows in prison cells." Glancing at Sokka's skeptical face, he added quickly "It's just a theory." After a couple moments of contemplation Sokka shrugged. "All right, we'll go with that. Now any idea of how we get past the walls?"

Aang squinted, but since the only light came from the very top of a thirty foot wall, the bottom half of it was covered by the inky blackness of the night.

"We need to get closer," Sokka muttered, starting to climb around the rock in front of them. Before following Sokka, Aang took Momo from his shoulder and held him in front of his chest; "Momo, you stay here with Appa," He said firmly to the blinking lemur.

He then gently set the lemur down on a rock and ran after Sokka, nimbly avoiding the boulders strewn across the mountainside as the lemur stared after him forlornly, its long ears drooping.

**Katara: **

Katara balled her fists and held them against her side, fighting to stay calm as Jet slowly walked towards her, his body language that of a stalking predator.

She told her feet to walk away from him, but they refused to obey, and just stayed rooted in the same spot as Jet came closer and began circling her like a vulture. Katara felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand up as she stared at the prison door, refusing to meet Jet's gaze as he circled around her. Suddenly, Katara felt his index finger tip her chin up so that she was forced to look into his dark eyes. Jet's left eye twitched and he abruptly dropped her chin.

"How are you Katara?" He asked his voice deceivingly calm as his bright eyes bored into her.

_What? _Katara thought in bewilderment, trying to understand what he meant by that comment. When no answer came from her Jet resumed walking around her.

If he wanted to intimidate her, he was doing a good job, Katara realized bleakly as she felt a cold sweat break out on her forehead.

"I myself am as good as a person can be after being taken prisoner by the Fire Nation. After being kept out of the sunlight in a dark windowless pit for months without the feel of wind on my face."

Katara's throat seemed to tighten as the rebel continued to circle her.

"Do you have any idea of what its like, to not seen the sun for weeks at a time, sleeping on cold metal floors and eating bland, lumpy grey mush for every single meal?" He asked in a low, dark tone as he stopped behind her.

The semi-darkness of the room seemed to press into Katara as he leaned over her shoulder and she felt his warm breath on her neck and ear. "_No. _You _don't."_ Katara's breathing became ragged as she listened to the sharp, almost feral edge to his voice. She closed her eyes and took a deep long breath before opening them to see Captain Lazar passing her cell, a smug smile on his face.


	9. In The Tower

**THIS CHAPTER WAS EDITED AS OF 1/20/06 **

Hey guys, I'm sorry that this is still basically old material! I really thought last chapter was too long to be read in one sitting so I decided to separate the two in half. My writing has been severely delayed by the holidays (AKA TRAVELING) So my date for the next chapter will be longer; but it WILL be before 2006!

**AND THANK YOU SO MUCH TO MY REVEIWERS! I FEEL SO VALUED!**

**Disclaimer: **

_Running at full speed comes to sudden stop in front of camera _Huh? Oh, uh, hi there! Yea, can we do this later? _Looks over shoulder apprehensively _I kinda have to go—_Fanficiton employee glares_ Okay Okay! uh, I don't own _Avatar_…at least not after he bro—CRAP! _Ducks and narrowly misses getting hit in the head by a blue boomerang and a familiar male voice is shouting: _There she is! Get her!

_Huge eyes _GOTTA GO BYE! _Hurtles over fence and continues breakneck speed to escape three angry teens, two dressed in blue and the other in red and yellow. _

**Chapter Eight **

**In The Tower**

**Aang and Sokka: **

As they came closer to the wall they slowed down, dashing from one large rock to the next in the brief moments when a guard wasn't walking by. After one such dash, Aang was a stone's throw from the wall; he glanced up and down the length of the wall, to make sure no guards were walking around on the bottom and then he studied the wall closer for the one weakness it was bound to have.

"See anything?" Sokka whispered from behind a rock shaped like a tree stump.

Aang wordlessly shook his head, and after ducking behind the rock incase the soldier walking by was looking down, he resumed his scrutiny of the wall.

Suddenly, he saw it; a metal bar covered hole out of which drained dirty black water. Aang's face lit up and he gestured wildly to Sokka to follow him as he dashed towards the drain.

Throwing themselves flat against the wall, Sokka and Aang tried to quiet their irregular breathing as they heard the footsteps off the men above them moving back and forth. Sokka suddenly bolted towards the drain pipe and then bent down to see how they could get through. Sokka peered closely at the short metal poles as Aang darted over.

"How are we going to get through these?" Sokka asked Aang so quietly the monk barely heard him. "My club can't break them."

Aang fidgeted and then bit his lip in indecision, an overwhelming sense of duty and great dread washing over him. "I could…"—Aang paused and then forced the rest of the words out of his mouth—"….melt them."

Sokka looked up at him so quickly Aang couldn't help but wonder if the Water Tribe boy had hurt his neck. Aang felt very uncomfortable under Sokka's piercing gaze.

"Can you do it?" Sokka asked softly, his voice serious. Aang swallowed hard and nodded desperately.

"I have to so we can save Katara…" He replied, his words in a faint whisper. Sokka nodded gravely and then moved away from the drain, and Aang noticed that Sokka made sure to have a large rock between him and Aang.

Aang turned and squatted, and began the breathing Jeong Jeong had taught him, and all the time, his heart pounded as he wondered if he really _could_ melt the bars. For a splint second Aang closed his eyes in sheer agony and indecision but the image of Jet standing over an unconscious Katara suddenly flashed in front of his closed eyes.

Aang opened them with resolution, and gripping the one of the three poles he started to concentrate on heating his hand. He grew concerned when nothing happened and he only felt the coolness of the metal beneath his hand when he suddenly heard Sokka whisper softly: "You can do it Aang."

Closing his eyes Aang concentrated on a slight buzzing in his chest until with one, strong mental push a thin stream of smoke leaked between his fingers. Oblivious to the rising smoke even though he heard Sokka's sharp intake of breath, Aang mentally pushed again and the still alien feel of fire licked around his hands.

Still not opening his eyes for fear he would lose his concentration, Aang struggled to make sure the sudden energy flashing throughout his body stayed under control, and only allowed a small amount of the energy to escape from his finger tips.

After five minutes that seemed like a lifetime to the young Avatar, Aang felt the tight grip he had on the bar suddenly cease to exist. Opening his eyes, Aang saw the small flame in his hand suddenly disappear and the stub of metal with thick, steaming liquid pooling around the base.

"I did it…" Aang whispered incredulously to himself, hardly aware of how mentally drained he was by the ordeal. He felt Sokka grip his shoulder and turning he caught sight of the older boy's smile before he ducked and set his club through the opening.

"We have to hurry before they notice the smoke," He whispered to Aang, pointing to the thin, almost transparent trail creeping up into the sky.

Aang frowned at the smoke but was unexpectedly yanked down to the ground by Sokka as a guard walked by.

_Please don't see the smoke, please don't see the smoke, _Aang thought as he flattened himself against the wall next to Sokka. Aang's heart thumped uncomfortably as the footsteps suddenly paused. Aang caught a glimpse of Sokka's pale face and realized that the older boy was as spooked as he was.

For the longest time there was silence, and then a mummer of words before the footsteps walked away slowly. Aang quickly released the breath he had been holding subconsciously as Sokka started to suck his stomach in and squeeze through the hole created by the melted bar.

Aang heard him grunting and saying things like 'freaking fire nation' along with

'Stupid…darn…hole'. Aang made a face as he watched Sokka struggle to get his head, then his shoulders and arms through, narrowly missing the still hot pool of metal running down the slight slope.

Sokka suddenly became stuck at his waist and after a couple minutes of fierce struggling he shot through and fell half way into the murky water. Sokka gagged as he came up, rising to his knees before hitting his head on the roof. Still grumbling under his breath, Sokka crawled far enough into the drain so that Aang could come through.

Aang quickly sucked in his stomach and slipped through in a matter of thirty seconds, and for the first time in his life he was thankful he was skinny.

The smell of the dirty water and what it contained was enough to make Aang start gagging, but he just breathed through his mouth and looked at Sokka's bobbing pony tail instead of the murky water he was crawling through. After crawling until the open end of the drain disappeared, Aang felt his left shoulder start cramping from crawling using only one hand.

Abruptly the tunnel grew wider so that Sokka and Aang could stand up; slots in the wall led up while the tunnel continued on into blackness. Aang immediately climbed up the slots, and after about seven notches he came chest level to a low opening covered with metal bars. Glancing around, Aang saw the wide dirt expanse and the large gate a little to the right of him. They had made it under the first wall.

"We're past the first wall," Aang whispered, "If we go a little farther we might be able to get past the second wall too." Aang's voice echoed down the pitch black tunnel as the air bender jumped back down into the ankle deep water.

"That's just too easy," Sokka said skeptically. "There must be a catch."

Aang paused and put his good hand on his chin reflectively. "Well, we could get lost. Or we could go too far. Or—"

"Let's just walk down the hall way," Sokka interjected, passing Aang and continuing down the tunnel. Aang left the pale circular light from the opening and followed Sokka down the tunnel.

**Ten minutes later…. **

Aang and Sokka waded through the black, ankle deep water as they came to the end of the tunnel; the smell had become much worse and Sokka felt ready to throw up from it as he and Aang were able to straighten up a bit.

Creeping to the bars, which were covered in slime and garbage, they looked through it to see the water coming from a deep hole in the ground that fed the stream of dirty water.

Sokka stiffened and grabbed Aang's shoulder wordlessly and then pointed through the rust covered bars. Aang followed his gaze and saw one Komodo rhino wading through the shallow pool while three others drunk from it, shoving each other out of the way to get more water.

Sokka watched as the realization dawned on Aang and he looked down at the water in horror. He was traveling through water that had been contamination by Komodo rhino's wading their feet through a muck covered pen!

_Well, it explains why it smells so bad, _Sokka thought wryly as he quietly walked up to the gate way as to not disturb the quarreling creatures.

Aang came up behind him as Sokka furtively looked around to see if any Fire Nation men were near by; he saw no one and looked at the place of the drain where it connected into the wall. With one well placed swing of his club, Sokka cracked the metal bar and caused the rhinos to stiffen and look around suspiciously.

Sokka crouched and Aang instinctively followed suit, needing to breathe through his mouth and plug his nose as he came closer to the murky water. The oldest of the Komodo Rhinos, a huge gnarly beast, came stomping over towards the gate way, his shifty eyes darting all around as he sniffed the air experimentally.

Sokka felt Aang grab his hand and pull him back into the tunnel so that they could hide in the dark, unseen by the rhino as he sniffed the garbage piled around the metal bars. The minutes ticked by before the rhino was distracted (along with the other males) by a female rhino as she stalked past, her lip curled as she made her way towards the feeding troughs.

Once the rhinos had left, Aang bolted towards the opening, his heart pounding with the adrenaline coursing through his body. Sokka followed at his heels and then hit the rusted pole a couple more times as Aang bit his lip at the echoing vibrations coming off the wall; Sokka saw Aang's brown eyes looked up at the back of the tower across from the rhinos pen and a look of determination came across his face as he Sokka loosened the bar from its socket.

Squeezing his club through, the boy warrior gulped and then after much struggling, got his head through, and then his left shoulder and then his right before gravity pulled him down and Sokka took a face plant in the dirty water.

Sokka opened his mouth by accident and it filled with the contaminated water that tasted like crap. Sokka wiggled both his trapped arms to get one of them free before he had a chance to drown. Suddenly Sokka felt a strong gust of wind knock him through the bars and send him tumbling head over heels into the water. Staggering to his feet, Sokka spit out the water forcefully and gagged, clutching his throat.

He was barely aware of Aang as he squeezed through the opening, making sure not to put his burnt arm in-between the rod and his body. With a grunt Aang shot himself through he hole like he did to Sokka once he got his hand free.

The rhinos at the end of the pen still hadn't taken any notice of the two and Sokka wanted it to stay that way. With a glance at each other Sokka and Aang bolted across the empty expanse of dirt, looking around in every direction for a soldier or a charging rhino.

The rhino's heads shot up at the sound of running feet and then every single one of those sixteen lizard beasts came thundering down the pen, nostrils blowing and snarling as they ran down the fleeing boys.

Sokka glanced over his shoulder as he felt the vibrations under his feet and heard the sound of snarling rhinos; his navy blue eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"Aang!" He gasped, looking ahead to where the young Avatar was running ahead of him with the aid of his air bending. Aang glanced over his shoulder when Sokka said his name and saw the rhinos closing in.

Gasping, Aang ran with renewed vigor. Sokka's lungs felt like they were on fire as adrenaline lent him wings, but the rhinos came closer and closer, their eyes appearing blood shot and their horns gleaming wickedly in the moonlight. Sokka thought that the fence line kept retreating.

Sokka grit his teeth as he felt the hot breath of one of the leaders of the pack close in on him. _I'm going to die!_

Choking down his shout Sokka took a flying leap and soared over the fence line, barely making it as he nicked it with his toe and landed in a crumpled heap on the other side.

The foremost rhino slid to a stop and collided with the fence, making it shake. Sokka scrambled onto his feet as the other rhinos ran into each other, bellowing and creating such a ruckus that their stable boys were sure to come. Sokka looked around wildly for Aang and saw the young avatar bent over, his face flushed as he caught his breath a few feet away from him.

"C'mon," He hissed, grabbing Aang's wrist and yanking him forward. His mouth was dry and he had a painful stitch in his side, but Sokka ignored this and ran to the tower, to the safety of the black shadows and statues before the men came by.

Without hesitating Sokka pulled Aang after him behind a large statue of a Fire Nation general and they both sat down heavily, struggling for breath just as the stable boys came around the corner.

Sokka peered around the base of the statue and saw a couple of the men enter the pen; dread washed over him as he remember the evidence of their break in.

"Aang," he hissed, keeping his eyes glued on the man closest to the gutter, "We have to get Katara before they find the hole."

His answer was a rustle of clothing as Aang started crawling along the base of the tower. With a parting glance at the rhino pen, Sokka followed Aang until the monk stopped and looked up.

"Sokka," He whispered quietly, pointing to the ground level window hidden behind thick bushes.

With a smirk, Sokka took out his boomerang and become chipping away at the old lock.

**Katara: **

Jet backed up and Katara took another deep breath and then whirled around to face him, willing herself to get angry so that she wouldn't be so frightened.

"What's your problem?" She demanded, hating how her voice shook ever so slightly.

"My problem?" Jet ducked his head and laughed a low, ugly laugh that gave Katara the creeps. His head shot up and met her large ocean blue eyes.

"_My problem_ is _you._" Katara lifted her chin defiantly and told herself not to show him how scared she was becoming; people like him fed off fear.

His dark eyes never left hers as he continued speaking:

"I haven't forgotten _Katara,_" He spat her name out like it was poison, "that it was _you_ who froze me to that tree and led to my capture!" He voice rose with every word until now he was screaming in rage.

Memories unbidden rushed into Katara's mind and she wished desperately for her water skin, which had been taken away a long time ago.

"You wouldn't have been frozen to that tree in the first place if you hadn't tried to murder those innocent people!" Katara shrieked shrilly, adrenaline making her feel somewhat giddy.

Jet's eyes blazed and he lunged for her. Katara barely managed to dart away from him and run away behind the iron posts to put space between them.

"Stay away from me!" She shouted as Jet regained his balance and took out his Twin Tiger Swords in one fluid movement.

Her breathing became irregular as she eyed Jet's swords, the tips of which were still sheathed but threatening nevertheless.

His breathing became louder too and the two single torches lighting the room played off his face, casting shadows that twisted his face into something that looked demonic.

"You didn't understand then and you don't understand now!" He said, as if to himself. Then his eyes turned on Katara's milk white face and he came closer, each step slow and purposeful.

"You cost me my _freedom!_" He hissed, coming closer and closer, his arms holding his swords in front of him, his eyes appearing more wolf-like then ever as he said "And now, I'm going to make you regret the day you betrayed me!"

**Aang and Sokka: **

After dropping into a dark room filled with Fire Nation armor, Sokka opened the door and they stepped into a torch lighted hallway.

Glancing up and down the hall and listening for any footsteps, Aang took off down the sloping hall instead of up. Sokka followed him, clutching his boomerang and wildly looking around for any warning signs of fire benders. Aang paused when the hallway splint in three directions and then chewed his lip.

Suddenly a sound reached Sokka's ears that made his blood run cold: footsteps.

Aang stiffened as he heard them too and looked fearfully at Sokka as the footsteps came closer, coming out of one of the three passage ways.

Sokka grabbed Aang and dragged him into the left hand hallway, running a short distance down and then pausing to make sure that the footsteps weren't coming up that hallway.

The footsteps were fainter then before and Sokka saw a tall man walk past the opening of the corridor he was standing in, swinging a pair of keys in his hands while humming softly, his beady black eyes gleaming in his pale face. Those keys….Sokka's eyes stayed glued to them before the man disappeared around the corner. Those keys looked like _prison cell keys. _

"Aang, this way," Sokka hissed, grabbing the young air bender's good hand and dragging him back up to the crossroads.

Coming back out of the hallway Sokka immediately ran down the right hand entryway, remembering for a brief second that when he had stood there as he heard the footsteps for the first time they had seemed louder.

The torch light played off the metal sides of the hallway as they ran down it, sometimes going down stairs and coming upon crossroads but Sokka always ran straight because it continually led downward. If Aang's theory about the prison being held at the bottom of the tower was correct, that was the way to go.

Aang's hard breathing echoed in the hall and Sokka glanced over his shoulder at the air bender, who had resorted to using his air bending to help him keep up with Sokka.

Looking ahead again, Sokka noticed passively that the hall way had an unpleasant smell about it as they ran deeper down into its maze…..

Suddenly as they rounded a sharp bend they came upon two guards in front of a metal door where the smell was obviously coming from.

The guards' eyes bulged when they saw the two dirty boys skid to a halt in front of them, one of them with his arm in a sling and blue tattoos on his head and hands.

Sokka reacted instantly on his instincts and in a flash his blue boomerang came out of its sheath and was thrown at the first guards head, knocking him out. The second soldier wasted no time in hurtling a fire ball at Aang and then lifted a curved horn to his lips.

Aang immediately blocked the fire ball with a shield of air, but since his other hand was useless to help the Avatar slid back a couple inches from the impact and wasn't able to retaliate right away.

The horns booming tune rung out in the halls for five seconds before it was cut short by Sokka knocking it out of the fire benders hand with his club. The wooden horn was promptly smashed by Sokka's club, crushing it to smithereens as the fire bender drew his arm back to send a blast of fire at the Water Tribe boy.

But before he could Aang knocked him against the metal wall with a blast of wind, and the guard's eyes slid shut when his helmet cracked as he hit the metal wall. Before the guard had even fallen back to the ground, Aang had leapt forward and grabbed the keys off of the hook, a sudden adrenaline giving him the strength to move.

Aang wretched the door open as soon as he jammed the key into it and Sokka followed him down the hall of prison cells, looking in each one for Katara. When they were nearing the end of the hall and they still hadn't seen Katara, only other prisoners, Sokka started to get frantic.

"Do you see her?" He asked Aang worriedly, stilling glancing inside every cell he passed, "We have to hurry before more guards come!"

"I don—" Aang cut off as they came to the end of a hall and another opened to their left. "Come on!"

As they turned down the hall with more secure cells, Aang suddenly slid a stop and Sokka crashed into his shoulder. "What—" He started to say angrily but was cut off by a familiar voice shrieking:

"_Get away from me!" _

"_KATARA!"_ Sokka shouted at the same time as Aang gasped. They frantically looked in the windows of the cells; trying to place the one Katara's voice had come from. Sokka peered in the fourth one on the right and the blood drained from his face as he saw Jet chasing his sister around an iron post, his swords in his hands.

"AANG!" Sokka shouted to the air bender as he yanked the door open, forgetting to be quiet.

Katara looked up at the sound of her brother's voice and the opening of the door and Jet took advantage of her distraction. Dropping one of his swords he backhanded Katara in the mouth so hard that she spun sideways and fell to the ground with a strangled gasp.

Without pausing a second, Jet gave the sprawled girl two very hard kicks to the ribs with his point boot.

At Katara's scream of pain, Sokka saw little black dots swarm in front of his eyes as he heard himself roar murderously, the only thought going through his mind as he gripped his club: _I'm gonna kill him! _

Before Sokka had to chance to attack Jet, the teen whirled around at the sound of Sokka's shout and grabbed his other sword from the floor. As Sokka took a step towards Jet he suddenly felt the air around him constrict.

His head whipped around and he saw Aang standing beside him, his tattoos shining an unearthly electric blue.

Without realizing why he did it Sokka threw himself to the ground in time to avoid the Avatar's crazy gust of wind that shot out like a snake and hit Jet like a boulder, throwing him backwards ten feet and high onto the wall.

Aang walked forward slowly, his eyes gleaming blue as he held the rebel up on the wall. Sokka glanced up in time to see Aang throw back his good arm, and then thrust it towards the ground; following a split second behind the wind holding Jet slammed him to the metal floor, knocking the rebel hard down on his tail bone.

Jet gave a short cry of pain as Aang threw his arm up and the wind supporting Jet hurtled the teenager into the ceiling, his back meeting the cold hard surface with a sickening _thump. _

Sokka eyes widened as he watched the raw power and wrath of the wind Aang was making as it hurtled Jet into the ground, and then into the ceiling three more times before slamming Jet to the ground again and then throwing him back against the wall, two feet off the ground.

Sokka had recovered most of his wits by now and crawled across the floor to where Katara was sprawled; she was holding her side with one hand and watching the scene unfold before her with a stricken face.

Sokka wrapped his arms around her as a heavy silence filled the room, broken by Jet's hard and shaky breathing. Sokka couldn't tear his eyes away from the rebel. His nose was bleeding heavily, and it looked broken—a large bloody gash above his left eye was bleeding down over his entire left side of his face, staining Jet's pale face a bloody crimson red. A black and purple bruise covered most of his jaw line, and his lip was bleeding as he gasped for breath, his eyes resembling those of a cornered wolf, never leaving the Avatar's expressionless face as he continued walking forward slowly.

Sokka heard Katara gasp and clutch his shirt as Jet suddenly began wildly clutching his throat, gasping for breath as if some invisible force was choking him.

Sokka got a bad taste in his mouth as he watched Aang start choking Jet with a thick ring of air, strong enough to hold the rebel off the ground even though it appeared he was being hung by his throat, his legs waving frantically.

Jet's face starting turning purple and his movements were becoming feebler with each passing second. The seconds continued to tick by and the Avatar's face was contorted, as if he was struggling with himself.

Sokka watched in shock at Jet's terrified face, and heard Katara's horrified gasp as Jet's face turned a dark purple blue and his hands started to slow down in their struggle.

_Is he going to kill him? _Sokka thought as he heard Katara whisper Aang's name.

Sokka watched the Avatar give him and Katara an unreadable look and a chill raced unbidden up and down his spine.

Suddenly Jet passed out and the Avatar immediately dropped his hand and the teen fell to the floor with a loud, echoing _thud_.

Sokka scrambled to his feet and pulled Katara up with him, and he felt Katara's grip on his hand tighten as the Avatar walked towards them.

Sokka swallowed hard as the Avatar grabbed his hand, his touch seeming almost transparent. When they got out in the hall, Sokka reclaimed his hand and raced down the hallway with Katara, Aang running beside him.

They ran by the prisoners who cried out in fear as they caught sight of Aang as he air bended to speed down the hall at a great pace.

Sokka glanced at his sister and clenched his teeth when he saw her bloody lip and bruised face. Katara caught his gaze and gave a quick, grateful smile as they ran through the prison door after Aang.

Sokka couldn't believe she was beside him after all this time and his grip tightened on her hand as they caught up with Aang, who was waiting for them at the crossroads, listening intently as horns blew, and the sound of foot steps that came up the hallways.

Sokka exchanged glances with Katara and gripped his club as he heard the footsteps racing up the three paths ahead of them, and the one behind them, the sound of Fire Nation soldiers racing up echoing from each one.

They were trapped.


	10. Escape Part One

**THIS CHAPTER WAS EDITED AS OF 1/21/06 **

**Author Notes…**

First off: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Okay guys, this is not the last chapter. You see, I originally planned for "Escape Part One & Part Two" to be in one chapter, but that would make it _way_ too long! I have finished the first draft of Escape Part Two but I still need to edit it, so it'll be up probably tomorrow so its still fresh in your minds! And then after that will be the epilogue to tie up some loose ends after that chapter. I had to do crunch time today, so I didn't have a lot of time to edit—which is why you're bound to see a couple grammatical mistakes. But never fear! At the same time the epilogue comes out I'm going to edit every single chapter! Thanks to all of my FABULOUS reviewers—I can't believe you guys like this story so much! I'm almost at a 100 reviews! 0 . o (I can hardly believe it) also, as a few of you have been wondering if I have a new story coming up, the answer is, yes, I do. More will be said on that in the epilogue A/N. So guys, here's part one of the finale of _The Return of Jet!_

**_IMPORTANT: _The knife Sokka uses is the one with the four molar teeth on the bottom and has a short slightly curved blade with a leather wrapped handle.**

Disclaimer: **MWUAHAHAHA!** **FINALLY,** I, **1BZWRITER**, HAVE TAKEN OVER NICK AND HAVE NOW BECOME THE OWNER OF AVA—_is bonked upside the head by Nick Lawyers with a plank of wood _Okay, Okay, _scowls and rubs head _I DON'T own Avatar: The Last Airbender. YOU HAPPY NOW?

**Chapter Ten**

**Escape Part 1**

They were trapped.

"What do we do?" Katara asked frantically, her ocean blue eyes wide as she listened to the clattering armor of the Fire Nation soldiers as they came closer to them. "Stand and fight!" Sokka told her grimly as he gave Katara his knife to defend herself with, gripping his club in his other hand.

Just as Katara grasped the leather handle, twenty Fire Nation soldiers spilled into the small hall, their swords and spears raised high.

Sokka's heart started thumping wildly as the men from the two hallways behind them started attacking Aang, the non-benders trying to throw their spears without hitting their fellow men as the benders lined up and began performing fire bending attacks in unison. Sokka only caught a glimpse of Aang knocking aside the spears and then flinging the powerful fire attacks to the ceiling before a stout, middle aged soldier with a long, wicked looking sword charged at him, his battle cry ringing in Sokka's ears.

Narrowing his eyes, Sokka returned the man's challenge with his own battle cry as the two leapt towards each other. Sokka's club and the man's sword clashed in an 'X' in front of them, Sokka straining against the fire bender as he leered at the Water Tribe boy, his beady eyes glaring into Sokka's blue ones.

With a grunt, the soldier shoved Sokka back with a thrust of his tree-trunk thick arms and the Water Tribe boy-warrior stumbled back a couple steps, giving up much needed ground. His arm swung away from his torso from the force of the blow and Sokka paused for the briefest of seconds before speed attacking the soldier, swinging for his side as hard as he could with his club……

The fire bender blocked it so easily that for a millisecond Sokka realized that the soldier he was battling could probably block swings like that in his sleep.

Disengaging Sokka's club, the soldier pulled back his arm and Sokka barely saw the blur that was his sword as it swung for Sokka's unprotected side.

Grunting with effort Sokka barely managed to twist his club around and blocked the man's sword before it was gone a split second later and swung around for his other side. Bending his knees Sokka blocked it again, the tip of the sword ripping through his shirt; and out of the corner of his eye Sokka saw Katara cornered by a soldier, swinging the unfamiliar knife for all it was worth as Aang knocked fire benders around like they weighed nothing.

Shouting again, the fire bender attacking Sokka drew back his sword and lunged for Sokka's neck, his stroke fast and powerful by using both of his hands.

"Ah!" Sokka yelped, throwing his neck to the side as his weapon came up and caught the fire bender's sword in the crook of his club.

Sokka caught a glimpse of the frustration and hate in the fire bender's eyes before he yanked away his sword and brought it down at Sokka's thigh.

Without having time to think the attack was so fast Sokka simply swatted at the sword while jumping back, knocking the blade to the side enough to only receive a shallow cut and a ripped pant leg. Deciding it was time to land his own hits Sokka brought his club crashing down at the fire bender's arm…..…just as the aforesaid fire bender swiped down at his feet with his long sword.

Giving a another yelp that was muffled under the din of crashing swords and armor, Sokka leaped high into the air, avoiding the flashing blade even as it nipped the toe of his boot. Gripping the handle on his club with two hands, Sokka brought them behind his head and then sent it crashing down at the fire bender's helmet…..

The soldier brought his sword up with a flash and blocked Sokka's blow an inch from his nose. Straining against each other Sokka found himself in another 'X' position with the soldier as they glared at each other hatefully.

Sokka heard Katara scream from behind him and his blue eyes widened as the beady eyed man grinned evilly and then dropped one of his hands. He pulled it back, shooting a blast of fire at Sokka's face, which at the moment was only an inch from the fire bender's sword.

Hearing someone scream and realizing it was himself a split second later, Sokka flung his back backwards, the fie reflecting in his eyes for a fraction of a second before gravity kicked in. Sokka crashed to the ground, his back popping in many places as one of his hands saved him from falling as it met the ground under him. His left hand still held up the fire bender's sword.

Sokka paled as the soldier drew his sword up without missing a beat and sent it crashing down at him. Rolling away quickly, Sokka felt the wind from the blade's descent tickle his neck as he avoided getting kicked in the face by another soldier. Once he was clear of his second attacker Sokka sent his club crashing into the first fire bender's leg.

The fire bender screamed and dropped his sword in agony as Sokka heard a muffled _pop_ as his club met behind the man's knee cap.

Stumbling to his feet, Sokka felt the heat and the angry roar of fire rush up behind him and flung his body to the side, avoiding a fire ball blasted at him from the second fire bender. Sokka rushed up to the man whose knee cap he had most likely cracked for the blow to his head that would knock him unconscious.

It never landed.

With a loud, feral snarl, the Fire Nation soldier snapped his head up and sent a large blast of hissing fire at Sokka's chest. Katara's shouts and the roar of air and fire filled Sokka's ears as he crashed to the floor, evading the fire blast by mere inches.

Glancing up, Sokka saw another soldier standing over him, his sword flashing down for a fatal blow. Too winded from the crash to the metal floor to yell in surprise, Sokka rolled to the side and the fire bender's sword tip smashed into the metal floor with a ringing _zing. _

Sokka had one foot on the ground and was on his other knee when he saw the wounded fire bender he had been fighting blast another torrent of fire at him.

Sokka flung himself down to the ground again to avoid the high blast and found himself scrambling out of the way of spears and the swords of other fire bender's as he tried to regain his feet.

Sokka noticed he was getting too close to the wall for comfort, and not wanting to be cornered against it the Water Tribe boy avoided an arcing spear, crashing his club into the offending fire bender's feet. He knocked him down and delivered a crushing, but not fatal blow to the man's forehead, thus effectively knocking him out and possibly giving him a concussion.

Sokka sprung to his feet, senses alert and breathing hard, sweat pouring down his face from the heat and exertion of the battle. Sokka noticed the lashes of fire from the wounded fire bender coming for his face in time to duck, and then rush forward to attack the still kneeling man.

When Sokka got to the distance of two feet, the man gave another snarl and with his good leg sent a thin line of fire towards the boys feet, over which Sokka leaped in the air to avoid….in time to see another blast of fire coming straight at his face.

Cursing loudly, Sokka bent his back at an odd angle and it popped again as he avoided the fire and landed wrong, stumbling to regain his sense of balance as the attack raged on around him.

Unfortunately this gave the thick-armed fire bender time to get to his feet, grab his sword and swing it at Sokka's side.

The sword and club met with a loud crash, and Sokka, acting purely on instinct, placed his right foot next to the man's left foot and then pivoted, ending up behind the tall monster of a man. Swinging his club back over his head for momentum Sokka hit right between the man's body armor and helmet hard enough to send him stumbling. Taking another step forward, Sokka hit the man's neck again and he crumpled to the floor like a block of ice.

Gasping for air in the smoke-filled room, Sokka heard foot steps and whirled around in time to block a sword blow to his back; straining against his attacker, Sokka briefly caught a glimpse of Aang taking a hit before retaliating with a gust of wind that knocked three fire benders against the wall and two down the right hand hallway.

Sokka quickly returned to the moment at-hand when from either side of the man attacking him came two fire benders, both of their hands sending strips of fire towards each of his sides, preventing him from leaping sideways.

After screaming in terror (which he heartily denied ever doing later) Sokka held up the sword in front of him and ducked under the fire bender's arm, missing the fire blasts so narrowly that Sokka felt the intense heat on his back as his clothes singed. Once he was out of the little circle the fire benders had made around him, Sokka pulled his club after him and slammed the man in front of him with the sphere of the club, causing him to crumble to the ground.

Sokka didn't have the chance to knock him out though because the two fire benders, after realizing they had missed, turned around and faced him, hands glowing an eerie and all-too-familiar red-orange.

"Crap."

Ducking their combined fire attack, Sokka quickly drew out his boomerang and sent it flying towards the group of fire benders starting to close in on him.

He lost track of it when he heard Katara shout again, to the behind and a little to the right of him. Whipping his head around, Sokka saw Katara across the room, pinned up on the wall by a leering soldier holding Sokka's own knife at his sister's throat.

Sokka felt the blood drain from his face as he saw all the fire benders between him and Katara. He could never reach her in time—!

"AANG!" Sokka shouted, in hopes of getting the Avatar's attention as the air bender parried, ducked and then attacked a fire bender.

Sokka's view was blocked by a wall of fire flashing in front of his face….gasping in horror, Sokka leapt back…..

And slammed into the chest armor of a fire bender soldier.

**Katara: **

The instant the twenty fire bender's entered the small hallway, Katara lost track of Sokka and Aang as they battled against their enemies.

Right off the bat about seventeen of the twenty raced towards Aang as the two raced towards Sokka and the third ran towards her.

Katara felt her face drain of any color, the knife feeling alien in her hand compared to the reassuring presence of water at her finger tips.

Gripping Sokka's knife until her knuckles turned white, Katara crouched and leapt to the side, avoiding the man's fire attack.

Adrenaline coursing through her weakened body, Katara only made jabs with Sokka's knife when she was behind the fire bender. The one time he turned on the balls of his feet, arms raised to rain down fire on her, Katara stopped him by slashing his cheek instantly. Katara watched with wide eyes as the fire bender stared at the blood on his finger tips for a split second before he increased the intensity of his attack on Katara.

Katara's eyes widened in horror and she couldn't stop the shouts of panic as she dodged the man's sword and fire attacks narrowly, singing her clothing and sometimes ripping it on the man's blade.

His sword suddenly came crashing down on her and Katara ducked into the hallway next to her to avoid the blade as it chopped off the end of her braid and her brown hair fell to the ground. Grinning at her, the fire bender stepped into the passage way and Katara realized her horrible mistake. By running into the hallway, she was trapped, having only one way to go and judging by the smell, Katara realized it lead to the prison holds.

So suddenly that it surprised the fire bender Katara leapt up at him, and using the momentum by running and then flying through the air, shoved him backwards as her hands connected to his chest plate. As she landed back out in the hallway, slightly behind and to the side of the stumbling fire bender, Katara ducked in time to avoid a fire bender flying through the air and then crashing into the wall with a loud _THUNK!_

Distracted by the flying man and the pain in her hands, Katara saw Aang block an attack and then she caught a glimpse of Sokka's blue clothing in between the red and black of the Fire Nation armor; she regretted doing this instantly as the fire bender next to her body slammed her into the wall and ripped Sokka's knife from her hands and pressed the sharp end against her neck so roughly that a thin strip of blood formed and started trickling down her neck.

Whimpering, Katara stayed utterly still as her wide, terrified eyes stared into the angry fire bender's face, his stinky breath invading her nostrils as he panted heavily.

_I'm dead meat. _

**Sokka: **

….And slammed into the chest armor of a fire bender soldier.

The skin on his knuckles was immediately stripped off as Sokka turned around to face his opponent.

Big mistake.

Immediately the fire bender slugged Sokka in the cheek, his fist alive with fire and Sokka screamed as he felt the fire burn his face. Still screaming, Sokka dropped his club and stumbled away from the fire bender, pressing his hand to his raw cheek and smothering the fire. Sokka had his eyes closed and was doubled over in pain as the fire bender continued his beating by punching Sokka in the stomach with the pointed toe of his boot.

"Ooof!" The wind rushed out of him as Sokka gasped and fell to his knees, clutching his stomach, eyes burning and feeling like he could never breathe properly again in his life. The fire bender pulled back his hand and lighted his fist to set the Water Tribe boy on fire, a demonic grin on his face.

Gritting his teeth, Sokka pried open his eyes as he gasped for breath and glared at his killer; for a brief moment Sokka was staring death in the face when at the last second a blue blur slammed into the back of the fire bender and his helmet took off flying as the soldier crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

With a grin Sokka caught his boomerang and got to his feet, happy to find he could breathe again even though his cheek still felt like it was on fire.

Glancing around, Sokka saw Aang finish knocking a fire bender to the ground and then immediately turning to meet another one's fire. The small room Sokka was standing in was littered with Fire Nation soldier's bodies and about eight soldiers remained; Sokka wildly looked around for Katara after launching his boomerang at a charging fire bender. Sokka caught a glimpse of the girl fighting a fire bender and losing, but his attention was yanked away by the familiar sound of a boomerang whizzing through the air.

After catching his boomerang deftly, Sokka looked around on the floor for his club, dodging a blast of fire before finding it behind a soldier's body. Running forward, Sokka put away his boomerang and gripped his club….

And caught the glimpse of brown eyes through a helmet slit as the fire bender next to his club leapt to his feet, surprising Sokka so much that he turned white under his dark skin and gasped before the man swung at him with his sword.

Sokka frantically blocked the man's wild blow to his neck, the fire bender driving his back closer and closer to the wall as Sokka avoided lightening fast swipes at his thighs, torso, neck, head, arms, and feet.

The abrupt ceasing of the sounds of fire, air and metal crashing against metal went unnoticed by Sokka as he saw an opening on the fire bender below his arm pit and jabbed the soldier with his club. Unfortunately, his club wasn't sharp and against the main's chain mail the only effect the club had on the soldier was to cause his sword to swerve and crash into the wall.

Darting around the fire bender and backing away from the wall, he put a good four foot distance between the soldier and himself. Glancing up the fire bender grinned and Sokka watched with growing dread as the man's sword began glowing a dull red.

"Is that it? A glowing sword? Oooh, I'm shaking in my boots!" Sokka suddenly taunted, waving his hands and pretending to shiver. The Fire Nation soldier's brown eyes glittered darkly and so great was his irritation that he didn't see the last of his men fall or feel the Avatar's cold gaze on him.

Shouting in outrage, the soldier rush attacked Sokka as the boy warrior stood there and smirked, arms crossed. Sokka's attitude alerting him at the last second the soldier glanced up and saw the Avatar pull back his hand before the air currant came rushing towards him.

Changing his attack to defense, the soldier evaded the blast and did the last thing Sokka expected him to do. The Fire Nation soldier pulled out a crude, bamboo horn and began blowing it incessantly as he sprinted for the nearest hall way. Sokka's smirk faded as he recognized the tune of the horn; it was calling for the other troops stationed throughout the accursed tower.

"Don't let him escape!" Sokka shouted, flinging out his boomerang. The soldier easily ducked Katara's slash with Sokka's knife and the boy warrior's boomerang, but the ringing of the horn stopped abruptly as Aang knocked the fire bender against the wall with the same move he had been repeating the entire battle.

"Come on!" Aang said in his Avatar voice; Sokka couldn't help but shiver a bit at how strange the air bender sounded—as if his voice and all of his past 1,000 life's voices were speaking at the same time, creating a low, rumbling undertone to the boy's normal voice.

The Avatar raced towards the hall leaping over the fallen Fire Nation soldier's and Sokka did the same, turning to grab Katara's hand before darting after the air bender.

**Katara: **

_I'm dead meat._

The fire bender leered at her before lifting one his hands and grabbing her throat with a strength that seemed akin to iron as Katara struggled for air even as the fire bender's hand warmed up.

Katara's lunges burned and her wild attempts to shove the man away slowed, as she realized with horror she was beginning to lose consciousness.

_No, no, _Katara screamed in her thoughts as she her vision dimmed and her thoughts began to darken.

Abruptly the pressure and searing hot pain on her neck ceased and Katara fell the ground, dizzy and gasping for breath as she blinked several times to make the floor stop spinning. Remembering the fire bender Katara looked up, certain that she would see a sword or a blast of fire arcing down at her.

But instead all she saw was the scorched metal ceiling peering back down at her. Still dizzy, Katara put one hand against the wall and looked around wildly to see what had happened to her attacker.

She saw his pale, leering face in a body propped up against the far wall. Katara snatched Sokka's knife from the floor as she glanced at Aang out of the corner of her eye, certain that the Avatar had once again saved her from a certain death.

She had time to notice Sokka blocking a Fire bender's attack and the few Fire Nation soldiers left standing before she was attacked again.

Her attacker attempted to plunge his blade through her heart and Katara leapt to the side, wishing fervently she had water at her finger tips.

Bringing Sokka's knife down, tip point out, Katara darted around the man until she reached his side, and as he turned and lifted his arm to hack her into little pieces or set her on fire, Katara jabbed Sokka's knife into the chain mail of the soldier.

Yelling as his flesh pinched between the chain mail, the soldier brought his arm down and swung at Katara, who jumped away again to face his back. She stepped back as the fire bender yanked the Water Tribe weapon out of his armor and flung it at Katara.

Yelping, Katara ducked and heard the rush of air above her head as the knife flew over her spinning crazily. When the knife missed its intended mark and instead met the metal wall with a _clang_ Katara's attacker make a noise of frustration before firing fire balls in a rapid succession at Katara.

Too terrified and short of breath to scream Katara dive bombed the floor and rolled out of the way of the fires, slinging her body to the side more then once as the fire bender tried to outsmart her in his aiming.

Katara's face was slick with sweat as she felt the intense heat of the fire blasts and the acid smell of smoke as she ducked. Jumping to her feet with speed she didn't know she possessed Katara evaded a shot towards the floor where she had previously kneeling.

Finally finding her voice, Katara opened her mouth to call for Aang as the fire bender rush attacked her, long sword swinging and her weaponless. Suddenly Katara felt a rough wind knock her clear across the room, and the breath from Katara's body left in a _whoosh_ as her bruised cheek slammed into the armor of an unconscious fire bender.

Eyes watering from the smoke and the pain in her body Katara slowly rose to her feet as she watched Aang finish fighting the fire bender who had been attacking her.

_I hate being helpless! _Katara suddenly thought as her eyes widened in dread as her brother blocked a furious barrage of attacks, some of them landing half-way home and cutting Sokka's flesh.

Suddenly the soldier had Sokka cornered against the wall and Katara watched as her brother crashed his club into the fire bender and gave himself time to rush away. Realizing that the roar of air and fire wasn't in her ears any more Katara glanced at Aang and saw him walking away from a fallen body towards the last soldier. Sokka glanced away from the man's flaming sword and saw the Avatar walking towards him. Sokka eyes gleamed and he quickly turned back to the grinning soldier.

"Is that it? A glowing sword? Oooh, I'm shaking in my boots!" Sokka taunted, waving his hands and pretending to shiver. Katara fought back a wry smile at Sokka's childish taunt, but it served its purpose as the fire bender, shouting in outrage, rush attacked Sokka as the boy warrior stood there and smirked, his arms crossed as he cocked his head.

Katara fully expected Aang to strike as the soldier was in mid-attack towards Sokka, but the soldier glanced to the side in the last few seconds and saw the Avatar striding towards him, hand out stretched. Changing his attack to defense, the soldier evaded the blast and did the last thing Katara expected him to do.

The Fire Nation soldier pulled out a crude, bamboo horn and began blowing it incessantly as he sprinted for the nearest hall way. The hairs on the back of Katara's neck stood up as she heard the horn.

"Don't let him escape!" Sokka shouted, flinging out his boomerang.

Katara came back to life and saw her knife a few feet away and then snatched it up, bolting towards the fire bender. The soldier easily ducked Katara's clumsy slash with Sokka's knife and the boy warrior's soaring boomerang, but the ringing of the horn stopped abruptly as Aang knocked the fire bender against the wall in the same move he had been repeating the entire battle.

"Come on!" Aang said in his booming Avatar voice. His voice sent shiver's up and down Katara's spine as she jogged towards him and Sokka.

Aang, without showing the slightest bit of fatigue, raced towards the hall leaping over the fallen Fire Nation soldier's and Sokka did the same, turning to grab Katara's hand before darting after the air bender. Her lunges burned as her legs wobbled, but Sokka's firm grip on her wrist kept her up to pace.

Effects of the horn started to take place though as Katara heard the clatter of boots again.

_No, _she though in despair. _Please…no more._

**Jet: **

He tasted iron in his mouth.

Groaning, Jet found himself on his side, his face smashed half-way into the metal floor. Slowly, Jet opened his eyes, and his vision swam, and the vision in one eye everything was rimmed in red. Suddenly aware of the warm, sticky fluid running over his left eye, Jet lifted one of his hands and wiped the blood away from a gash on his forehead. Coughing, Jet got to his knees before the room started spinning and he was overcome with nausea.

Ducking his head, barely aware of his trembling body, Jet threw up his lunch. Gasping for breath four minutes later, Jet kept his eyes closed as his stomach churned uneasily and his back felt like a thousand white-hot needles were stabbing him.

Groaning again, Jet tried to swallow through his damaged throat—

_The Avatar. _

Jet looked up as his vision cleared and he heard the ringing tones of horns. Slowly turning his head to look at the room, Jet saw his Twin Tiger Swords lying a couple yards away, and the prison door wide open.

_Gone. He escaped! _Jet clutched his fists as he gritted his teeth together. All his hard plans! Gone, wasted! Down the drain! That da—

Suddenly Jet burst into a fit of coughing, and when he opened his eyes he was staring at the floor where flecks of blood were sprayed.

Slowly as his stomach was still churning, Jet lifted his hand and felt the blood running from his mouth. _I hope that's not from inside of me, _Jet thought soberly as he wiped the blood away from his mouth. Jet tried to wrinkle his nose at the vomit by his legs but a sharp, throbbing pain shot through his nose instead and he gasped. The words he uttered would have made a pirate cringe.

_So he thought I was out of the picture…_Jet slowly got to his feet, ignoring his violently trembling limbs as his body started going into shock.

_Revenge! I will make him pay for this….he thought he escape **me?**_

Breathing heavily, Jet stood up for a couple seconds before carefully walking over to his Twin Tiger Swords. Suddenly Jet paused and his brow furrowed. Why was he still alive? He thought for sure that the Avatar was going to kill him……

_No matter, _Jet said to himself as he gripped his swords. _He still needs to pay; Katara and Sokka too. _

Jet fought down his nausea and how light headed he was feeling and power walked out of the prison cell, deciding not run so he could save energy.

By the time he had walked down the long hall of prisoners, Jet had calmed down enough to think straight. As he kept brushing away the blood running from his open head wound and lip, the throbbing pain in his neck and back rose in intensity until Jet gasped and leaned against the prison cell door at the end of the hallway, trembling like a leaf as the ground spun crazily. Closing his eyes tight, Jet noticed the horns were nearer along with the sound of running feet.

_I can't fight like this, _Jet realized bitterly, _beep I can barely walk! I need to stop the bleeding…_Jet sheathed his left hand sword and pressed his hand against his head wound as he painfully jogged up the hall way. He couldn't even fight that so-called warrior _Sokka; _how could he expect to fight the _Avatar? _

Jet swallowed his pride and decided that he should attempt his own escape as the Avatar and his companions attempted to flee the tower. If his prey escaped Lazar would turn on him, and agreement or no agreement, imprison him and execute him personally.

Gritting his teeth again, Jet reached the cross roads and his eyes opened as wide as they could go when he saw the Fire Nation men sprawled across the ground, pale and unmoving.

He had been here.

And the sound of shouting Fire Nation soldiers with their weapons was coming from the two passage ways behind him. Jet turned and forced his body to run around the soldiers and up the only other hallway, racing along even though he heard foot steps ahead of him—that were going _away_ from him?

Jet frowned in confusion until a sudden thought hit him like a ton of rocks; even though Jet's hand had turned red from his own blood and he was light headed and wounded, an expression came over his face that would have made even Lord Ozai cringe.

**Sokka: **

Sokka's heart sank as he heard the uneven running footsteps running after them and the distant shouts of the men ahead of them and behind them.

_Crud, _Sokka thought bitterly. "Run faster!" He gasped, his legs pulling and stretching so much that his hamstrings felt like jelly. Katara's breathing was irregular and she was beginning to slow down.

"Katara! Come on we have to hurry!" Sokka exclaimed, tugging Katara's hand firmly.

"I'm—trying—" She said in-between great gasps of air.

Sokka's lips thinned as he heard the footsteps come closer, seemingly around the very bend behind them. _She can't last much longer, _Sokka realized as he glanced at Katara's pale face. _And I don't think I can last much longer too. _Sokka gave a little grunt as the cuts on his body started to sting with a vengeance.

Aang was running ahead of him, his head swiveling in every direction for the turn to go down to the hallway that had the weapon room they had come in. By the speed the air bender was going at, many people would have thought he had plenty of energy but Sokka saw how jerkily he moved and it made him uneasy. If Aang's Avatar Spirit suddenly receded, the boy would probably pass out and then Sokka would have a _big_ problem on his hands…..

"There!" Sokka hissed, as a hall way opened up on his left. The Avatar changed directions and ran down the path, Sokka and the quickly-tiring Katara at his heels.

"Come on, just a few more feet Katara," Sokka told the young water girl in an attempt to encourage her to greater speed. Aang threw the door open and caught it before it had a chance to slam into the wall. Disappearing into the dark weapons room, Sokka lost sight of Aang as he slid to a stop, breathing so hard he thought his heart would burst.

"Get in," He ordered as he shoved Katara a couple feet towards the door. The girl obeyed, clutching her heart as she gasped for breath. Upon hearing the shouts of: "Where'd he go?" and "Check all of the rooms and hallways! He couldn't have gotten far!" Sokka stiffened in terror momentarily before gently closing the metal door. They had to get out the weapons room before they were caught!


	11. Escape Part Two

**THIS CHAPTER WAS EDITED AS OF 1/21/06 **

**Author Notes**

Hey guys! The reason this chapter was delayed was because of my BUSY schedule and because of that I didn't have a lot of time to edit. **This is the last "chapter" in a sense, but it is not the end of the story. **And I'm sorry that after that longish wait the chapter isn't too terribly long…And remember, the epilogue will take longer (maybe even two weeks) since I have to go back and edit every chapter and then write the preview to my upcoming story. So bring out your pitch forks and torches! And to all of my not-signed-in/anonymous reviewers, thanks for reviewing! Your comments are taken into consideration and are valued!

Enjoy the story! **Note: I don't know _what_ the Fire Nation uses on their tips for their arrows so please tell me if you know! **

**Disclaimer:** You must be _really_ stupid if you haven't figured out that I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender by now. --

**Chapter Eleven**

**Escape Part 2**

They had to get out the weapons room before they were caught!

"_Hurry!_" Sokka hissed as he stumbled over to the far wall, the stream of moonlight from the small window lighting his path. Aang used a gust of air to propel himself up enough so that he could grip the edges of the window sill and squeeze through. Sokka stood under the window and put his hands together, creating a small platform for Katara to put her foot in and grab the edge of the window sill.

Katara quickly put a hand on the cool metal wall and placed her foot in Sokka's hands. Sokka lifted her leg and Katara managed to grab the sill before her brother had to let go. Sokka gasped as he dimly heard footsteps closing in. Someone was coming into the room! Turning back Sokka gave Katara a rough shove to send her through.

"Hey! Don't forget me!" Sokka said urgently, holding a hand up. Nodding grimly, Katara grabbed Sokka's hand with both of hers and hauled Sokka up a few inches as the boy pushed off the wall with his feet to help.

"Got it." Sokka said abruptly, teeth grinding together, his arms creaking as he pulled himself up the rest of the way. Taking her upper body out of the window, Katara leaned back against the wall to catch her breath and Sokka immediately shut the window and then motioned for Katara to move away from it.

They sat there for a couple seconds, panting heavily as Aang leaned against the tower wall, waiting for them to catch their breath.

"Aang, call Appa," Sokka said, placing a hand on the side of the tower to get up as the warning bells peeled throughout the still night and men ran around shouting.

"Aang." Sokka repeated impatiently as the air monk stared at the two walls ahead of him with a calculative air. When the Avatar still didn't respond, Sokka sighed irritably and reached a hand out to shake the air bender's shoulder.

"_Aang_—" Sokka cut himself off as the air bender's head whipped around, his gaze piercing into Sokka's hand. Sokka quickly drew back his hand before it touched the boy, as if stung.

"Aang, call Appa so we can get out of here," Sokka said earnestly, quickly shrugging off his discomfort as he saw all the lights appearing out of nowhere while the sirens wailed. Their hiding place in the shadows behind the statues would be discovered quickly if they didn't hurry! The Avatar simply held his gaze a few seconds before simply turning away. Sokka growled in frustration, and opened his mouth to speak again but he was cut off by a harsh booming voice:

"THERE THEY ARE! GET THEM!"

Sokka froze in horror and looked over his shoulder. What he saw almost made his knees knock in outright terror.

Around forty fire benders were rushing in at the trio in every direction, fists flaming, swords raised high as they opened their mouths and a terrible battle cry erupted from every throat.

Sokka barely heard Katara's strangled cry of panic over the din. So suddenly that Sokka had no idea what was happening, Aang ran forward towards the sprinting mass of bodies and stood still for a millisecond before putting his good arm in a palm-to-palm gesture and then dropped to his knees and slammed his open palm to the ground.

Utter chaos was unleashed.

An attack that today could only be compared to as a sonic boom echoed throughout the courtyard, knocking everything against the walls—fire benders, bushes, statues, rhinos, fence posts, feeding bins, Sokka and Katara; _everything_—as the Avatar stood in the center, air swirling around him with a ferocious roar.

Sokka screamed as his body slammed against the rough texture of the tower, the hard ridges bruising the entire right hand side of his body, his head meeting the tower with a sharp _crack! _

The air pushing him against the tower suddenly went away and Sokka dropped four feet to the ground amidst the ruins of the statue he was hiding behind, the world swirling around in a vortex of light as Sokka struggled to stay conscious.

Groaning, Sokka put a hand to his forehead and blinked several times at the dirt on the ground in front of him. He stayed like that for a couple more moments, waiting for his ears and head to stop ringing before he remembered that they were under attack. Fighting against his urge to just collapse then and there from the pain and fatigue, Sokka struggled to his knees and looked out at Aang, hardly believing his eyes.

To say it was total devastation would be putting it lightly.

All of the fire bender's were laid against the bottom of the first wall, swords bent out of shape and armor smashed. Sokka couldn't see a single one moving.

The rhinos lay stunned and motionless, and a couple lay buried under boulders that had fallen off the top of the first wall.

All of the windows on the tower were shattered; glass was strewn across the ground, and every single statue and the stair case leading into the tower was smashed to bits. And in the center of it all was Aang, a faint blue light encasing his being as he bent over double, trying to catch his breath.

_We need to go now, _Sokka thought vaguely as he rose unsteadily to his feet, unaware that his nose was bleeding.

He took a couple unsteady steps towards Aang before he remembered Katara.

"Katara!" Sokka coughed, looking through the thick cloud of dust obscuring his vision. He stumbled over to where he saw her last and found her body sprawled prostrate on the ground, a small trickle of blood running down her head.

And she wasn't moving.

Feeling his heart rise in his throat Sokka forgot about his fatigue and scrambled over to her and checked for her pulse. He let loose a shaky breath when he found it strong and steady. Coming back to the moment-at-hand, Sokka quickly scooped Katara into his arms 'bridal style' and groaning heartily, he half-jogged to where Aang was fighting the few soldiers who came around the other side of the tower. The dust had thinned out enough for Sokka to see and he quickly looked around to see what was going on.

_What do I do? _Sokka asked himself, looking around frantically. His eyes fell on the drain he and Aang had come through, although now the bars on it were shattered and the fence line was demolished. The rhinos were gone and no one stood in between him and the drain.

Could he escape down the drain with Katara and leave Aang behind? Or should he put Katara behind some statue remains and help Aang? Sokka glanced over at the air bender, who was barely able to fight off some of the fire benders and then down at Katara's pale, bleeding face. He couldn't help one and still help the other, Sokka realized grimly. Without another moments hesitation he bolted across the courtyard, his father's words about taking care of his sister ringing through his mind.

Reaching the drain that was half way covered with rocks Sokka stopped and turned around to look back at Aang. He bit his lip, hating himself for deserting his friend, then turned and disappeared down the tunnel. His heart pounding, Sokka ran through the ankle deep black water, hugging Katara close against his chest as he looked ahead, his back stooped over in the tunnel.

His back, already sore from the crash against the tower and the exertion of the fight went numb with pain as he looked ahead for some light in the pitch black tunnel, unable to shove aside his concern for Aang.

Sokka ran down the tunnel for ten long, long minutes, the deep blackness of the drain pressing into him almost as if it were a physical being before he finally saw the pale circular shaft of light. Rushing forward with renewed energy and gasping for breath, Sokka was able to stand up straight and relieve his cramped back. He stared up the ladder slots, the sounds of battle coming to his ears from the bar-covered opening at the top of the ladder.

He was past the first wall and from the closeness of the battle he assumed Aang must be too. Unable to just keep going, Sokka quickly shifted his hold on Katara so that he was holding her waist with one of his arms before climbing up the shaft. When he reached the opening his navy blue eyes widened at what they saw.

Aang was on the top of the wall, knocking down ladders, evading swords, flipping men off the walls, attacking the fire benders with a whirlwind of air attacks that were truly terrifying. But even as the path in front of him cleared, more fire benders and sword masters filled it, keeping the air bender locked in the middle of a mass of bodies.

Suddenly Sokka saw flaming arrows being shot at Aang from windows in the tower; whether some sixth sense told him or he just had good reflexives, Sokka watched Aang knock the arrows to the side and into the men around him at the last second. But the thing that truly worried Sokka was the desperation in the Avatar's movements and attacks, and how sluggish he was starting to move.

_He's running out of steam, _Sokka thought bitterly. _And if he drops down in front of all those guys he's toast._

Sokka's mouth set in a grim line. The only way to save Katara _and _Aang would be to go get Appa and then fly back to rescue the Avatar. Without wasting another second since time was running out, Sokka jumped down the ladder and landed with a splash in the water. Wincing at the jolt running up his legs, Sokka barely heard Katara's tiny moan.

Glancing down, he saw a deep frown on his sister's face. Suddenly, a noise came that made Sokka's head snap up. Someone was running after him in the tunnel, his feet splashing in the water.

A split second later Sokka could be seen bolting down the tunnel as fast as his feet could possibly move.

**Jet: **

Jet heard pounding footsteps ahead of him and a boy's voice hissing something. Jet's eyes gleamed as he recognized Sokka's voice. If the Water Tribe boy was just ahead of him, the Avatar must be with him! If he was, he could—!

Jet's head throbbed as he jerked it up at the sound of _boots_ and the jingling of _armor_ ahead of him and behind him.

Jet increased his speed and suddenly came upon a hallway to his left. Without hesitating, he turned down it just as a troop came around the corner. Trying to not alert them of his presence in the passage way Jet forced himself to power walk down the hall way even though his fingers twitched wildly at his suppressed urge to run. A door suddenly appeared and due to the sound of pursuing foot steps behind him, Jet wretched it open and stood inside. It was a Fire Nation weapons room with high walls, and a small window that let the moonlight spill into the room was on the wall opposite him.

Still hearing an echo of footsteps (the sound had been grating on his nerves forever it seemed) Jet immediately grabbed a closed crate of helmets and shoved it under the window, groaning tremendously with the effort.

Bringing his hand down, Jet was relieved to see that his gash wasn't bleeding any more. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Jet leapt on top of the crate as the knob jiggled. Jet frantically wretched open the window and for a split second saw the Avatar bring his hand palm down onto the ground before air from the window slammed him in the face so hard that he flew off the crate on onto the metal floor. Groaning, Jet blinked back the tears threatening to run down his face from the pain. _I can't take much more of this, _He thought bleakly, staying prostrate on the floor. _I have to get out of here! _

Noticing that the jiggling on the knob stopped, Jet felt closed his eyes and focused to keep breathing deep breaths. He stayed there on the floor for six minutes or so before forcing himself up; Jet climbed back on the crate before he noticed the shattered glass and the total devastation outside. He turned white as he gaze landed on the Avatar in the center of the disaster, a faint blue light encasing his body.

"#$&!" Jet muttered to himself, hauling himself through the window, ignoring the sharp stabs of pain in his hands and thighs as he wiggled through. Once he was out, he tried to get to his feet, but he was trembling so bad from loss of blood and exertion that he simply leaned against the wall, breathing hard.

Through the thinning dust he saw the form of Sokka glance back at the Avatar before disappearing down a tunnel half-way hidden behind a pile of debris. Jet frowned. _Why would he go in there? He's trapping himself…unless there's another way out!_

Jet got to his feet before new men from inside the tower came out and captured him. Half-heartedly jogging across the courtyard, Jet avoided dizzy, bleeding soldiers easily enough to slip into the tunnel without an incident. Hearing Sokka's running foot steps in the distance, Jet started walking, stooped over and trying to fight down his nausea as he thought of a way to make sure Sokka and his sister never escaped……

**Sokka: **

Sokka felt ready to collapse with his sister's weight dragging him down. The tunnel seemed to run on endlessly into the dark, and it seemed ages and ages to Sokka before he saw the small half circle that was the other entrance.

_Yes, _Sokka thought in relief as he neared the opening. Reaching the bars, he glanced over his shoulder as he heard the splashing footsteps about twenty feet behind him.

Sokka quickly sat Katara down in the water and leaned her up against the tunnel wall, wincing as her leggings and long skirt stared to soak up the black water. _She won't be too happy when she wakes up, _Sokka thought dryly as he squeezed through the bars, groaning and wriggling until he popped through.

By then he heard the sound of heavy breathing and splashing water. Quickly putting his arms through the hole, Sokka grabbed Katara's shoulder's and then tugged her through, sometimes having to shift her body around to fit through.

She would definitely be sore in the morning….

Once Katara's feet were through, Sokka wasted no time in leaving the drain pipe as the cold wind howled down the tunnel, bringing with it the heavy breathing of another person. Sokka gave Katara a piggy pack like he had when they were little kids and with a groan, he rose to his feet and slowly started climbing up the steep mountainside, needing to walk instead of bolting up the incline like he wanted to.

Doubled over from the weight, Sokka looked down at the rock covered ground he was climbing over and slowly but surely made head way over the rocky terrain. Sokka had made it half-way up the hill without being spotted when suddenly he slipped on a loose stone. A guttural groan escaped his lips as he fell onto the thousands of painfully sharp little rocks with Katara's weight on top of him.

The stone he had slipped on crashed down the mountainside and knocking down other loose stones until a rumbling rock slide was crashing down the mountain, causing Sokka's heart to plummet at the loud racket that echoed throughout the night. It was still very noticeable even above the din Aang was making. His worst fears were confirmed when suddenly he heard a shout on the wall.

Stumbling to his feet and falling three times before he finally got his feet under him he was moving so fast, Sokka ran with renewed strength as arrows came whistling from the wall, some of them flying over his head or nicking Katara's sleeves. He yelped as they landed all around his feet; looking around frantically Sokka spotted a large boulder and sprinting towards it, he collapsed behind it to catch his breath as a couple arrows continued to sing over and around his shelter.

Looking up, he saw the belt of small boulders behind which Appa and Momo were waiting; it was about a hundred feet away but with no cover large enough to hide him and Katara, he could very well get shot in-between here and there. Taking a deep breath, Sokka left the shelter of the rock and beginning racing up the face of the mountain for his and his sister's lives.

**Jet: **

Finally, the end of this blasted tunnel! Jet rushed towards the opening, his back screaming at him as his head swam from the blood rushing to his head. When Jet reached the bars, his eye brows shot up in surprise at the melted bar that created the opening. He stared at the cool pile of melted metal for a few more moments before a clamor reached his ears. Glancing up through the drain hole, Jet saw a small rock slide tumbling down towards the wall, and a blue clad boy with a girl on his back racing up the mountain.

_Sokka and Katara. _

Jet heard a shout on the wall above him, and shortly after that, a barrage of arrows was set towards the water-boy and his apparently unconscious sister. Jet smirked as the murky water soaked through a hole in one of his boots.

Those iron tipped arrows would take care of Sokka and Katara for him since he was in shape to do so. Jet quickly squeezed through the hole, only being able to fit after taking off his shoulder pads and Twin Tiger Swords.

Straightening in the shadows of the wall, Jet's eyes gleamed as he saw the arrows nicking his enemies. While the tower was preoccupied with Sokka and the Avatar, he could escape unnoticed, his absence not detected until after the fight. And by then, he would be _long gone_. Jet grinned through the blood and bruises on his face and then walked away, melting into the darkness.

**Sokka: **

Sokka zig zagged sharply to the left and right irregularly in an effort to throw off the accuracy of the archers. It worked well enough in the fact that none of them pierced him or Katara, but no so well in the respect of getting cut on his ears, arms and legs. After what seemed an eternity of ducking and dodging, Sokka finally reached the boulders and immediately sat down hard behind them, breathing hard.

He closed his eyes as he trembled from the effort of running up a mountain with a teenage girl on his back. He was shocked that for such a slim girl that Katara was _so darn heavy. _He _never_ wanted to carry her again in his life!

He was jolted out of his thoughts as Momo landed on his head, tugging his pony tail and chirping frantically.

"Ow! MOMO—OW! Get OFF!" Sokka bellowed as the lemur yanked his ponytail and his ears. Reaching his hands up Sokka wretched the overly excited lemur from his head and held him in front of his face. "Don't _ever_ do that again," He said darkly, glaring at Momo. Suddenly his attention left the lemur's face as he heard voices screaming to get out the catapults.

"C'mon," He said to the busy-tailed lemur, setting him on the ground. "We have to get Aang out of there!"

As Sokka picked Katara up again, at the end of his strength, Momo jumped from rock to rock, hissing and chirping so frantically that Sokka wondered if it was possible that the lemur had lost his mind.

Appa gave a small grunt as Sokka approached; the bison's large eyes were dark and worried from the chaos going on around him. Appa actually came forward so that Sokka didn't have to walk far to put Katara in the saddle and Sokka vowed to himself that after this whole mess he would give Appa a whole _bushel_ of moon peaches!

He feebly dragged Katara up into the saddle and gently laid her down before crawling onto Appa's head and grabbing the reins. Momo scrambled onto Appa and then onto Sokka's shoulder, still twittering nervously. Forcing himself to keep going even though all he wanted to do was curl up and sleep, Sokka lifted his chin and set his eyes on the tower that was alive with fire.

"_Yip yip_."

**Katara: **

Her head hurt so bad that Katara thought she would just go back to sleep, but the pain all over her body was past numbing and the roar of fire in her ears immediately made her remember that she was in the middle of being rescued.

Sitting up with a gasp, Katara felt the wind on her face and to her astonishment, found she was on Appa. The full moon came out from behind a cloud, and as Katara looked over the edge of the saddle, her heart leapt into her throat as Sokka sent Appa directly over the outer wall of the Fire Nation fortress. Her ocean blue eyes widened in absolute horror as a flaming fire ball half the size of Appa was launched from the catapult straight at them.

Katara gave one long endless scream and out of the corner of her eye saw Momo leap from Sokka's shoulder and run over to her as the bison dodged the fire ball, missing the burning mass of fire by only a couple feet.

Katara looked back down and saw Aang fighting in a mass of fire benders and soldiers, with flaming arrows being sent at him from the tower windows. Katara looked at Sokka in alarm as he sent Appa flying down so low over the wall that when the men turned around as they heard Appa's roar, they screamed and threw themselves on the ground.

Those who didn't got knocked off the wall as the bison zoomed towards Aang, flying so fast that Katara's eyes watered as Momo clung to her waist with all his might while he shrieked in terror.

"**AANG!" **Sokka shouted over the roar of fire and the zinging of arrows along with the crash of armor meeting metal.

The Avatar cocked his head as he stood with his back to them. With one rough movement of his good arm he pushed away an arrow and a fire attack before shooting himself up into the sky with strands of air spiraling him straight up.

He landed on his feet into the saddle as Appa immediately shot high into the air away from the catapults and flaming arrows that nearly shot the bison.

Appa was going so fast that the wind was blowing Katara's braid around like crazy but she still heard the commander screaming:

"**DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY! SHOOT THAT MONSTER DOWN!" **

The tower quickly receded in size as they flew higher and Katara sighed in relief when no fire balls were seen flying up at them.

_They were finally safe. _

Katara glanced over at Aang, whose tattoos were still glowing even though he was bent almost double, resting his hands on his knees and breathing very hard. "Aang—" Katara started to say, crawling over to him with Momo, but she cut herself off when she smelled the acid smoke that only one thing could possess.

"FIRE BALL!"

Aang's head shot up and he bolted forward, running onto the bison's tail before lifting his foot and hand at the same time; he gave a hoarse shout of effort as wind erupted from him and smashed the fire ball to smoking smithereens.

Katara's sigh of relief was short lived when to her absolute horror Aang's tattoos suddenly went out and he stood there at the edge of Appa's tail, teetering before falling over the edge.

Screaming, Katara launched herself forward so fast that Momo went flying off of her lap as she flew half-way over Appa's tail and managed to catch the unconscious air bender's wrist at the last possible second.

Her eyes caught sight of the land that was over one hundred feet below them as they flew over the Fire Nation tower, the cold night wind biting into Katara's skin as she strained her arm muscles for all they were worth to pull Aang back to safety. Fire balls came raining up at them and Katara screamed in agony and terror as Appa jerked every which way to avoid the fire balls coming from the tower. Aang's body twisted violently each time Appa went a different direction and Katara's arm felt like it was being ripped out of its socket as she struggled to hold onto Aang.

Katara gripped Aang's wrist with both of her hands, tears streaming down her face from the effort of holding the Avatar suspended in the air. Slowly, Aang's sweat-slicked wrist began slipping through her fingers.

"No, no!" Katara choked out, gritting her teeth as she tried to pull him up. Despite her efforts she continued to lose her grip on the air bender. Now only his wrist—fingers—

"_SOKKA!_" She shrieked, panicking as her grip slid even higher up on Aang's hand and now only held the ends of his fingers that were quickly slipping through her own—

"_NO!"_ Katara screamed as Aang's hand slipped through hers and the air bender plummeted to his death—

Suddenly Sokka was there; leaning over the top of Katara's back his hand shot down and grabbed the air bender's wrist. Sokka's hand turned white at the knuckles as he began pulling the air bender up. Katara, almost giddy with adrenaline, terror, and relief feebly helped Sokka grab Aang's shoulder and then they hauled the boy onto Appa's tail and back into the saddle. Katara watched through tear filled eyes as Sokka leaned the Avatar against the side of the saddle, Aang's face completely expressionless in his unconscious state.

Having stopped crying but still trembling, Katara crossed her arms and gripped herself, so busy telling herself to calm down that she didn't notice the absence of fire balls. Sokka turned to her, and to Katara's utter shock she saw unshed tears swimming in her brother's eyes.

That he completely surprised her would be an understatement as Sokka suddenly grabbed her in a painful bear hug. After the initial shock of the first three seconds Katara hugged him back, burying her face in his shoulder, barely noticing how bad he smelled.

If she wasn't so emotional she would have gagged.

Sokka pulled away after a minute, his face grave as he looked at her face wounds. Katara drew a shaky breath, gripping Sokka's hand to steady herself.

"Is it over?" She asked softly as they flew through the night air on Appa.

Sokka's face broke out into a small smile. "Yeah. We made it." He replied quietly.

They smiled at each other for another moment before Katara turned to the duffels tied on Appa's saddle, retrieving a water skin from under the bundles.

Unscrewing the cap, she turned back to Sokka who was looking at her expectantly. Katara took a quick drink to satisfy her thirst and then handed it to Sokka. He took a quick swig before handing it back to her as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Take off your shirt," Katara ordered him as Momo nuzzled Aang's face in efforts to wake him up.

"You need to rest before you heal anybody," Sokka protested, his face flushing slightly. "So get some sleep."

"I can rest after knowing that my brother and my best friend don't have festering burns and cuts on their bodies, thank you very much," Katara said crisply, starting to feel a lot better. "Now take off your shirt."

Scowling, Sokka took off his shirt and Katara's eyes widened at the damage down to Sokka's developed torso. "Ouch," She said sympathetically.

Sokka merely grunted and looked away as she poured water onto her hand and it glowed a bright transparent blue. Sokka shivered from the cold night air as Katara took her hand off the newly healed patch of dark skin. Telling herself that she could finish him tomorrow, Katara only took care of the more damaging wounds, such as the burn on Sokka's cheek and the deep cuts on his arms and sword slashes on his upper body.

"There," She said after three minutes of healing. "I'll finish healing you tomorrow."

"Thanks Katara," Sokka said gratefully, quickly putting his torn shirt back on. Katara still had water left, but her hand was trembling from the effort of healing. Sokka saw it before she could turn away.

"Katara, you need to stop before you hurt yourself." Sokka said sternly, frowning at her as she sat next to Aang.

"No," She said firmly, avoiding Sokka's gaze as she decided to see what was wrong with Aang's arm before she asked Sokka to help her remove Aang's torn and burned shirt. Peeling back the makeshift bandage, Katara gasped as she saw part of Aang's arm. It was covered in dried blood, a frightening swollen purple and the burn on his arm was every shade of blood red in between dark midnight black.

Katara glanced up at Sokka, her horrified face asking her question for her. Sokka's grim expression didn't help as he met her gaze; swallowing hard, Katara turned back to Aang, pouring water onto her hand and began healing his entire arm. It took a lot of concentration and by the time Katara stopped she was exhausted, breathing hard and had a slight sweat on her brow.

"Katara…." Sokka said meaningfully as he dug out blankets.

"Let me heal his major cuts Sokka," Katara said quietly. _It's my fault that he got these in the first place, _she added to herself. Katara quickly healed the bleeding slash across his chest through his torn shirt. After healing the cut on his head, Katara healed her throbbing cheek and raw throat before she quit. But that nasty bruise on Aang's wrist from when Sokka pulled him over Appa didn't look very comfortable—

"Katara," Sokka said angrily, as he saw her reach for the water flask again. "That's enough! You can finish tomorrow!"

Sighing, Katara nodded and glanced back at Aang before she crawled underneath the blankets Sokka had laid out for her. Aang's face remained blank, his body unmoving as his chest barely rose with each breath. Katara glanced behind her shoulder over at Sokka, who was leaning against the saddle with his arms folded and his eyes half-way open as he watched her.

"Is he going to be alright?" Katara asked in concern. "He's never used his Avatar spirit for so long before." Sokka gave a half-hearted shrug.

"It took a lot out of him Katara. He'll be out of it for a while."

Katara nodded and looked thoughtfully behind them at the quickly disappearing mountains.

"Thanks," She said after a long pause. When Sokka didn't respond she glanced back at him and then grinned at Sokka's sleeping face. He was so tired he wasn't even snoring!

Deciding it was her bed time too, Katara yawned and laid down, pulling the blankets over her. Momo crawled over to her and under her blanket, settling down against her stomach, a purring bundle of fur. A small smile graced Katara's lips before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

**To Be Concluded **


	12. Epilogue

**This Chapter was edited as of 1/21/06**

**Author Notes:**

Wow, I can't believe that this is the end! I never thought this story would **_ever_** hit 100 reviews! **Thank you to everyone who reviewed this story! This story is dedicated to you guys! I also would like to say that every single chapter of this story has been edited! **

Now, I'm afraid that I have some bad news. I won't be writing another story; I won't even be on fanfiction any more since the site has tried to fire a spy ware onto my PC and I have decided that I have to quit. :( (And that is also why you might have disappeared from my alert list, have stopped getting reviews from me and why I will have disabled my private messaging service) **I'll be leaving fanfiction on Sunday, January 22 2006.**

Now I hope you all enjoy this final installment of _The Return of Jet! _You all have my thanks!

**Disclaimer:** Wow, my last disclaimer already…..here goes. I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender! Wow. That felt really insignificant. Was that IT? No ROSES? No CONFETTI? No TRUMPETS?

**Epilogue **

The horizon was a bright pink, and the world was covered in a hazy mist as dawn approached. Jet stood on a small hill rising up out of the forest, the wind waving back his shaggy hair to reveal an indigo colored bruise on his forehead. He held himself rigidly, a large bag under his right eye as his left was covered by the strip of cloth he had tied on to hold his head wound shut.

Jet's hand rested on the dagger strapped on his belt as he looked back at the land he had traveled in the night, a dark tower the size of a toy in the distance. A smirk played around his lips. It quickly died as he turned his gaze northward, his keen eye sight barely making out a flying bison's shadowy form.

Just like him, the Avatar had escaped.

Jet ground his teeth together. Why was _he_ the one who always lost whenever he came face-to-face with the Avatar and his friends? Rage vibrated his being as the white blotch finally faded out of sight.

He didn't care if he had to send out every assassin in the Earth Kingdom; he _would_ make them pay, even if he couldn't do it himself! Yes, that was what he would do. The smirk returned to Jet's battered face. As soon as he got back to his freedom fighters he could rest and carry out his plan to try and assassin the Avatar and his companions.

Jet winced as his throbbing head ache worsened, feeling like a sledge hammer was being slammed in between his eyes and behind his head; to make it even worse it was accompanied by the throbbing of his back.

Trying to ignore the pain, Jet's eyes roved back to the Fire Nation tower he had escaped. By now, Lazar would have a party riding out after him and the Avatar.

Jet shaded his eyes when suddenly the sun burst over the horizon, bright rays shining down at the earth, blinding in all its glory.

Jet grinned, taking it as a sign. He, too, would rise over his enemy and be victorious. He would rise from the ashes and prove _everyone_ wrong!

Still grinning maliciously, Jet turned away from the sunrise and disappeared into the forest.

**Aang: **

The first thing Aang was aware of was the smell of pine trees and the cool night wind blowing on his face.

Wondering where he was, Aang tried to open his eye lids; but they felt weighted down by bricks and after three minutes he just gave up, instead listening to see where he was. His entire body felt weighted down, like he had a ton of rocks on top of him.

The next thing he was aware of was the soft pop and crackle of a fire. Feeling panicked that he couldn't see what was going on Aang struggled to open his eyes, the only part of his body that would to some extent respond to his mind.

His paranoia increased when he heard the sound of a knife being sharpened and he struggled to remember what had happened to him.

He remembered everything clearly up until when he saw Jet attack Katara. Then, everything was a fast paced blur that his muddled mind couldn't penetrate. Aang was jolted out of his thoughts when his head was lifted up and cool water poured down his throat.

If he was captured, what was he doing out in the middle of a forest with someone caring for him?

Finally Aang was able to open his eyes, although he only managed to open them a crack. Katara's concerned face was bent over him, water hovering at her finger tips.

She gasped when she saw that his eyes were open and the water left her control, splashing onto Aang's tunic. He didn't notice as her ice blue eyes grew wide and she stared at him wordlessly.

Wasn't she happy to see him? Aang wondered as the Water Tribe girl continued to stare at him, her face blank even though her eyes turned a darker blue.

"Hey Katara," Aang croaked, his voice slightly harsh from being unused.

Her face broke out into a beautiful smile and she bent down and grabbed him in a bear hug. Aang couldn't help but groan at the painful hug even though he was enjoying it. Much to his dissatisfaction Katara immediately pulled away, a look of regret on her face.

"Sorry Aang," She said, a thread of guilt working its way into her voice. Suddenly the sound of weapon sharpening ceased and footsteps made their way over to where Aang lay on the forest ground, covered with a blanket by the small camp fire.

Sokka's face appeared over Katara's shoulder, all of the wounds on his face gone thanks to Katara.

"Hey, you're awake!" Sokka exclaimed, a hint of relief in his navy blue eyes.

"How long was I asleep?" Aang managed to say, trying to sit up and failing miserably.

"Six days," Katara said quietly, gently pushing him back to the ground. Aang's mouth would have dropped open if the muscles in his face didn't feel like they were frozen in place.

"Katara thought you were never going to wake up," Sokka said matter-of-factly as Katara blushed, "I told her to shut up and stop worrying but she wouldn't listen to me." Sokka added, shooting Katara an 'I-told-you-so' look.

Katara made a face at Sokka before turning back to Aang, who was listening to Sokka with a gleam in his eyes.

"How do you feel?" Katara asked him, turning her back to Sokka and effectively changing the subject.

Aang would have shrugged if he could. "I feel like I was hit by a ton of rocks."

Sokka grunted, walking away from Aang and resumed sharpening his knife from across the fire, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like: "that's probably the understatement of the year" under his breath.

Aang looked at Katara's face as well as he could in the dim lighting, frowning as he tried to remember. When he couldn't his frown deepened, and Katara just sat beside him staring up at the stars blankly.

"Katara…" Aang began slowly. Katara glanced down at him.

"Yes Aang?"

Aang chose his words carefully. "What….what exactly happened after Sokka and I found you in the prison cell with Jet?"

"You mean you can't remember?" Katara asked, alarm on her face.

"No," Aang answered miserably. "Its just one big blur."

The sound of sharpening paused again and a long silence ensued, and even the crickets in the grass were quiet.

"Well then," Katara said softly, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence. "I suppose you want to know what happened."

Aang didn't even need to answer, as it was apparent that he did as he stared expectantly at Katara's troubled face. So with a sigh, Katara told Aang everything that happened at the tower, with Sokka putting in his two cents every now and then.

"So where are we now?" Aang asked when Katara had finished, looking around the wooded area he was in with interest.

"We're on the outer edges of the Miya forest right now," Sokka answered for her as he leisurely ate a pear. "Soon we'll be at the northern Earth Kingdom Mountains."

Aang's eyes suddenly lit up at Sokka's words, an excited grin covering his face.

"That's where the Northern Air Temple is!" He sputtered in excitement, pulling himself up on his elbow. "Did you guys know that there are story tellers in the villages at the bottom of the mountains? We have to go see them!" Aang babbled, waving his hand around to underline his words.

Katara laughed like she hadn't done since her capture and laid her hand on Aang's shoulder.

"Sure, Aang, we can go see the story tellers," Katara said. "But...if we want to reach the Northern Water Tribe as soon as we can, we probably shouldn't stop at the Air Temple," She added gently, hoping Aang wouldn't get angry.

The air bender looked disappointed, but he agreed nevertheless.

"Great, now that's that all settled, can we get have something to eat?" Sokka said lazily as he leaned against the back of a tree, his knife lying at his side along with the stone he was using to sharpen it.

Katara rolled her eyes as Aang chuckled, lying back down against his blankets. Katara stood up from her spot by Aang and quickly threw Sokka a papaya, aiming for his head as the Water Tribe boy stared into the woods.

Aang couldn't resist laughing at Katara's dumbfounded expression as Sokka caught the fruit effortlessly, shooting the girl a scornful glance before he started eating it.

XXX

The next day was spent quietly as Aang recuperated a little more, stretching out his muscles and practicing his air bending for a couple minutes throughout the day. Sokka was out foraging as Katara bent over the campfire and made a weak broth with the little herbs she could find.

Aang was sitting by her, Momo riding on a ball of air as he sent it whizzing around the campsite, sometimes flying right over Katara's head and making her braid whip around.

Suddenly the Water Tribe girl stopped what she was doing and sat down by the air bender.

"Aang," She started, looking at the boy so gravely that he stopped what he was doing and stared at her expectantly as Momo fell into his lap with a squawk.

"I want to thank you for saving me." She said simply, gratitude in her eyes.

Aang shrugged, somewhat surprised. "You don't to thank me for that Katara," He said cheerfully. "After all, what are friends for right?"

Katara smiled and surprised Aang by giving him a bear hug. "Thanks Aang," She repeated as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Aang turned a peculiar shade of red as he stuttered: "N-n-no problem Katara."

She smiled again and stood up, just as Sokka came into the clearing, holding his cheek with one hand as he grumbled about stupid scorpion bees.

XXX

That night, Aang finished tying down some bundles onto Appa's saddle as Sokka climbed aboard with a last minute bag of berries. The wind raced through the trees, sending some leaves flying overhead as Katara doused the camp fire and then climbed up Appa.

"Aang's turn," Sokka said bluntly as he pulled a blanket over his head and turned his back to Katara, cutting loose a couple meaningful fake snores.

"Its okay Katara," Aang said quickly as Katara's hand reached to untie Aang's borrowed water skin, "I feel fine." After glancing at Aang doubtfully, she shrugged. "Okay, if you're up to it," She said as she leaned against Appa's saddle. They shared a smile before Aang climbed aboard Appa's head and gripped the reins.

"Appa, yip yip," Aang said absently, his thoughts focused on a certain Water Tribe girl.

Aang's heart soared with the familiar sensation of plunging into the air as Appa brought his large tail down and sent them high into the sky, the night wind blowing into Aang's happy face.

_Everything's okay, _Aang thought in contentment. _We saved Katara, Zuko hasn't attacked us, and soon I'll be at the North Pole._

Just as Aang thought this, the moon came out from behind her shroud of clouds and beamed down at the trio as they disappeared into the night to the adventures that awaited them.

**The End **

**Authors Last Ending Notes: **

**Thank you for joining me on my adventure! Please let me know what you thought of this story; aka, please review!**

**_12 chapters, 21 favorites, 21 alerts, 116 pages and 115 reviews later, this story was completed as of January 21, 2006. _**

**-1bzwriter- **


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